TITLE 72

WORKER’S COMPENSATION AND RELATED LAWS — INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION

CHAPTER 13

EMPLOYMENT SECURITY LAW

72-1328.  Wages. (1) "Wages" shall include:

(a)  All remuneration for personal services from whatever source, including commissions and bonuses and the cash value of all remuneration in any medium other than cash;

(b)  All tips received while performing services in covered employment totaling twenty dollars ($20.00) or more in a month, which are reported in writing to the employer as required under federal law;

(c)  Any employer contribution under a qualified cash or deferred agreement as defined in 26 U.S.C. 401(k) to the extent such contribution is not included in gross income by reason of 26 U.S.C. 402(a)(8).

(2)  The term "wages" shall not include:

(a)  Payments (including any amount paid by an employer for insurance or annuities, or into a fund, to provide for any such payment) made to or on behalf of an individual or any of his dependents under a plan established by an employer that makes provision generally for individuals performing service for him (or for such individuals generally and their dependents) or for a class or classes of such individuals (or for a class or classes of such individuals and their dependents) on account of: (i) sickness or accident disability (but, in the case of payments made to an employee or any of his dependents, this subparagraph shall exclude from the term "wages" only payments received under a worker’s compensation law), or (ii) medical or hospitalization expenses in connection with sickness or accident disability, or (iii) death;

(b)  Payments on account of sickness or accident disability, or medical or hospitalization expenses in connection with sickness or accident disability, made by an employer to or on behalf of an individual performing services for him after the expiration of six (6) calendar months following the last calendar month in which the individual performed services for such employer;

(c)  Payments made by an employer to or on behalf of an individual performing services for him or his beneficiary: (i) from or to a trust described in section 401(a) of the Internal Revenue Code that is exempt from tax under section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code at the time of such payment unless such payment is made to an individual performing services for the trust as remuneration for such services and not as a beneficiary of the trust, or (ii) under or to an annuity plan that, at the time of such payments, is a plan described in section 403(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, or (iii) under a cafeteria plan within the meaning of section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code;

(d)  Payments made by an employer (without deduction from the remuneration of the individual in its employ) of the tax imposed upon an individual in his employ under section 3101 of the Internal Revenue Code; or

(e)  Noncash payments for farm work.

(3)  Any third party making a sickness or accident disability payment not excluded from wages under subsection (2)(a)(i) of this section shall be treated as the employer with respect to such payment of wages for the purposes of this chapter.

History:

[72-1328, added 1947, ch. 269, sec. 28, p. 793; am. 1949, ch. 144, sec. 28, p. 252; am. 1951, ch. 104, sec. 3, p. 233; am. 1955, ch. 18, sec. 3, p. 20; am. 1963, ch. 314, sec. 5, p. 841; am. 1971, ch. 142, sec. 8, p. 595; am. 1975, ch. 126, sec. 2, p. 259; am. 1981, ch. 144, sec. 1, p. 248; am. 1982, ch. 326, sec. 5, p. 812; am. 1986, ch. 25, sec. 1, p. 77; am. 1989, ch. 57, sec. 2, p. 80; am. 1998, ch. 1, sec. 38, p. 20; am. 2021, ch. 243, sec. 3, p. 753.]