The House Commerce and Small Business Committee never considered legislation to create a final paycheck law for Alabama. The only neighboring state with a final wage law is Tennessee.

HB49 by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, would have required employers to pay final wages on the next regularly scheduled payday. It also would have given the separated employee the option of being paid through his or her usual method of payment or by mail.

The bill sought to punish employers who “without any reasonable grounds” don’t pay final wages to employees who quit, resign or are discharged, suspended or laid off. Besides the unpaid owed wages, the bill would have made the employer liable for 10 percent of the unpaid wages for each day beyond the final payday that the wage payment is late, “excluding Sundays and legal holidays.”

It also made provisions for late payments due to “acts of God” and other disruptions of regular business.

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