Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 15 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require the Department of Education to implement measures to ensure newly hired employees receive their paychecks in a timely manner and in accurate amounts.

Testimony in support of the intent of the measure was submitted by the Department of Education and the Department of Accounting and General Services.

The measure provides that if the Department of Education is unable to pay the total wages due to a newly hired employee by the second pay period after the employee's start date, the Department of Education may pay the newly hired employee partial wages in an amount not less than fifty per cent of the amount due for the second pay period and for each consecutive pay period thereafter in which the Department of Education maintains a paycheck deficit with the newly hired employee.

Your Committee finds that the public school system is faced with a critical shortage of teachers and school-level administrators that is projected to increase over the next few years. Your Committee further finds that providing accurate and timely paychecks to newly hired staff should be a basic yet essential part of the department's recruitment and retention activities.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 15 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.