Federal Spotlight: Joint WIOA Final Rule offers reporting clarifications
August 25, 2016
On Aug. 19, the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Education released the Joint WOIA Final Rule, which clarifies that states are only required to report on wages "paid," not wages "earned."
The final rule also clarifies that there was no expansion of the definition of “quarterly wage records” as a result of WIOA. There is no federal requirement through WIOA that employers provide additional information as part of quarterly wage records.
The final rule authorizes the implementation of new agreements to exchange quarterly wage information, subject to the applicable federal and state confidentiality requirements. There is also a recognition that employment and wage information may be needed from sources other than quarterly wage records to enable performance evaluation.
The Labor and Education departments plan to issue guidance and new data sharing agreements to facilitate wage record data matching required for all WIOA core programs in meeting performance requirements. The departments also plan to establish pilots through governors, relating to services for employers to assess the effectiveness in WIOA serving employers.