Essential Pay for Essential Workers Act
Bill: H.R.738 | Sponsor: Rep. Watson Coleman, Bonnie (D-NJ)
Policy area: Taxation

Summary:
Essential Pay for Essential Workers Act
This bill requires employers to pay essential health care employees a premium amount in addition to their regular rate of pay during an emergency period. It also allows employers a payroll tax credit for the payment of such enhanced wages to essential employees.

To require employers to pay essential pay to health care employees 
 during public health emergencies, and to provide a tax credit for the 
                           cost of such pay.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Essential Pay for Essential Workers 
Act''.

SEC. 2. MANDATORY ESSENTIAL PAY FOR HEALTH CARE EMPLOYEES DURING PUBLIC 
              HEALTH EMERGENCIES.

    (a) Employer Requirement.--During an emergency period, an employer 
of an essential employee shall pay the employee at a rate equal to the 
sum of the regular rate of pay of the employee and $15.
    (b) Enforcement.--A violation of subsection (a) shall be deemed a 
violation of section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 
U.S.C. 206) and unpaid amounts shall be treated as unpaid overtime 
compensation for the purposes of sections 15 and 16 of such Act (29 
U.S.C. 215 and 216).
    (c) Definitions.--In this Act:
            (1) FLSA terms.--The terms ``employer'' and ``employ'' have 
        the meanings given the terms in section 3 of the Fair Labor 
        Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 203).
            (2) Essential.--The term ``essential employee'' means an 
        employee identified as an essential critical infrastructure 
        worker in the memorandum entitled, ``Advisory Memorandum on 
        Identification of Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers 
        During COVID-19 Response'' issued by the Director of the 
        Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency on March 28, 2020, or a 
        successor memorandum.
            (3) Emergency period.--The term ``emergency period'' has 
        the meaning given such term in section 1135(g) of the Social 
        Security Act.
            (4) Regular rate.--The term ``regular rate'' has the 
        meaning given the term in section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards 
        Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 207).

SEC. 3. PAYROLL CREDIT FOR CERTAIN MANDATORY ESSENTIAL PAY.

    (a) In General.--In the case of an employer, there shall be allowed 
as a credit against the tax imposed by section 3111(a) of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 for each calendar quarter an amount equal to 100 
percent of the qualified essential pay wages paid by such employer with 
respect to such calendar quarter.
    (b) Limitations and Refundability.--
            (1) Credit limited to certain employment taxes.--The credit 
        allowed by subsection (a) with respect to any calendar quarter 
        shall not exceed the tax imposed by section 3111(a) of such 
        Code for such calendar quarter (reduced by any other credits 
        allowed against such tax for such quarter) on the wages paid 
        with respect to the employment of all employees of the 
        employer.
            (2) Refundability of excess credit.--
                    (A) In general.--If the amount of the credit under 
                subsection (a) exceeds the limitation of paragraph (1) 
                for any calendar quarter, such excess shall be treated 
                as an overpayment that shall be refunded under sections 
                6402(a) and 6413(b) of such Code.
                    (B) Treatment of payments.--For purposes of section 
                1324 of title 31, United States Code, any amounts due 
                to an employer under this paragraph shall be treated in 
                the same manner as a refund due from a credit provision 
                referred to in subsection (b)(2) of such section.
    (c) Qualified Essential Pay Wages.--For purposes of this section, 
the term ``qualified essential pay wages'' means wages (as defined in 
section 3121(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986) paid by an 
employer which are required to be paid by reason of section 2.
    (d) Special Rules.--
            (1) Denial of double benefit.--For purposes of chapter 1 of 
        such Code, the gross income of the employer, for the taxable 
        year which includes the last day of any calendar quarter with 
        respect to which a credit is allowed under this section, shall 
        be increased by the amount of such credit.
            (2) Election not to have section apply.--This section shall 
        not apply with respect to any employer for any calendar quarter 
        if such employer elects (at such time and in such manner as the 
        Secretary of the Treasury (or the Secretary's delegate) may 
        prescribe) not to have this section apply.
            (3) Certain terms.--Any term used in this section which is 
        also used in chapter 21 of such Code shall have the same 
        meaning as when used in such chapter.
    (e) Regulations.--The Secretary of the Treasury (or the Secretary's 
delegate) shall prescribe such regulations or other guidance as may be 
necessary to carry out the purposes of this section, including--
            (1) regulations or other guidance to prevent the avoidance 
        of the purposes of the limitations under this section;
            (2) regulations or other guidance to minimize compliance 
        and record-keeping burdens under this section;
            (3) regulations or other guidance providing for waiver of 
        penalties for failure to deposit amounts in anticipation of the 
        allowance of the credit allowed under this section;
            (4) regulations or other guidance for recapturing the 
        benefit of credits determined under this section in cases where 
        there is a subsequent adjustment to the credit determined under 
        subsection (a); and
            (5) regulations or other guidance to ensure that the wages 
        taken into account under this section conform with the wages 
        required under section 2.
    (f) Transfers to Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust 
Fund.--There are hereby appropriated to the Federal Old-Age and 
Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance 
Trust Fund established under section 201 of the Social Security Act (42 
U.S.C. 401) amounts equal to the reduction in revenues to the Treasury 
by reason of this section (without regard to this subsection). Amounts 
appropriated by the preceding sentence shall be transferred from the 
general fund at such times and in such manner as to replicate to the 
extent possible the transfers which would have occurred to such Trust 
Fund had this section not been enacted.
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