I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 5261 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide an employer credit 
for increasing wages. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 22, 2019 
Mr. RUIZ introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide 
an employer credit for increasing wages. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rewarding American 
Investments to Support Employees Act of 2019’’ or the 
‘‘RAISE Act of 2019’’. 
SEC. 2. EMPLOYER WAGE CREDIT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subpart D of part IV of sub-
chapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 
1986 is amended by adding at the end the following: 
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‘‘SEC. 45T. EMPLOYER WAGE CREDIT. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of section 38, the 
employer wage credit determined under this section with 
respect to any employer for any taxable year is an amount 
equal to 10 percent of the excess (if any) of— 
‘‘(1) the aggregate amount of wages paid or in-
curred to specified employees during the calendar 
year which ends with or within such taxable year, 
over 
‘‘(2) the aggregate amount of wages paid or in-
curred to specified employees during the calendar 
year immediately preceding the calendar year de-
scribed in paragraph (1). 
‘‘(b) LIMITATIONS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The amount of the credit 
determined under subsection (a) with respect to any 
employer for any taxable year shall not exceed 
$500,000. 
‘‘(2) LIMITATION ON INCREASE WHICH MAY BE 
TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT WITH RESPECT TO EACH EM-
PLOYEE.—The amount of wages taken into account 
under subsection (a)(1) with respect to any employee 
shall not exceed the sum of $25,000 plus the 
amount of wages taken into account under sub-
section (a)(2) with respect to such employee. 
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‘‘(c) SPECIFIED EMPLOYEES.—For purposes of this 
section, the term ‘specified employee’ means any employee 
who— 
‘‘(1) was employed continuously in one or more 
trades or businesses of the employer during both cal-
endar years described in subsection (a), and 
‘‘(2) earned wages not in excess of $75,000 
during the calendar year described in subsection 
(a)(2). 
‘‘(d) OTHER DEFINITIONS AND SPECIAL RULES.— 
For purposes of this section— 
‘‘(1) WAGES.—The term ‘wages’ has the mean-
ing given such term by section 3306(b) (determined 
without regard to any dollar limitation contained in 
such section). Such term shall not include any 
amount taken into account in determining any other 
credit allowed under this subpart. 
‘‘(2) PREDECESSOR AND SUCCESSOR.—Any ref-
erence in this paragraph to an employer shall in-
clude a reference to any predecessor of, or successor 
to, such employer. 
‘‘(3) AGGREGATION RULE.—All persons treated 
as a single employer under subsection (b), (c), (m), 
or (o) of section 414 shall be treated as one em-
ployer. 
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‘‘(4) INFLATION ADJUSTMENT.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In the case of a tax-
able year beginning after 2020, the $500,000 
and $75,000 amounts in subsections (b) and (c) 
shall each be increased by an amount equal— 
‘‘(i) such dollar amount, multiplied by 
‘‘(ii) the cost-of-living adjustment de-
termined under subparagraph (B) for the 
calendar year in which the taxable year be-
gins. 
‘‘(B) COST-OF-LIVING ADJUSTMENT.—For 
purposes of this paragraph, the cost-of-living 
adjustment for any calendar year is the per-
centage (if any) by which— 
‘‘(i) the CPI for the preceding cal-
endar year, exceeds 
‘‘(ii) the CPI for calendar year 2019. 
‘‘(C) CPI FOR ANY CALENDAR YEAR.—For 
purposes of this paragraph, the CPI for any 
calendar year shall be determined as provided 
in section 1(f)(4). 
‘‘(D) ROUNDING.—If any amount as ad-
justed under subparagraph (A) is not a multiple 
of $1,000, such amount shall be rounded to the 
next lowest multiple of $1,000. 
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