Agenda - Council - 09/13/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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emergency. Premium pay responds to eligible workers performing essential work if it prioritizes low- and moderate -income persons, given the significant share of essential workers that are low - and moderate -income and may be least able to bear added costs associated with illness. The level of the award limit up to $13 per hour not to exceed $25,000 in aggregate in the ARPA supports this reasoning. Accordingly, the interim final rule required written justification for how premium pay to certain higher -income workers responds to eligible workers performing essential work: if a recipient (or grantee) uses SLFRF funds to provide premium pay to an employee and the pay or grant would increase a worker's total pay above 150 percent of their residing state or county's average annual wage for all occupations, as defined by the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, whichever is higher, on an annual basis, then the recipient must provide, whether for themselves or on behalf of a grantee, written justification to Treasury detailing how the award responds to eligible workers performing essential work. Public Comment: Treasury received numerous comments on the wage threshold and the written justification requirement. Several commenters supported the threshold as a way to encourage recipients to target premium pay to lower -income, eligible workers. Some commenters even asked Treasury to make the wage threshold a firm restriction, above which an eligible worker could not receive premium pay. Others agreed with the threshold but also requested flexibility to use existing worker classifications as an administratively simple way to identify workers for whom premium pay would be responsive. For instance, a few commenters asked Treasury to allow recipients or grantees to presume that premium pay "responds to" eligible workers performing essential work when it is provided to employees who are not exempt 227