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H 7959Standards & Wages

Labor and Labor Relations - Payment of Wages

This bill requires employers to provide detailed pay stubs listing hours, rates, and deductions to all employees.

Held for study
Population
Affected
72
Email Legislator
Introduced Feb 27, 2026Committee House Labor

Plain-English Summary

This bill updates the requirements for the pay stubs (statements of earnings) that employers must provide to employees in Rhode Island. It mandates that all employers furnish a detailed, itemized statement with every paycheck, listing specific information such as gross wages, total hours worked, hourly rates, piece rates (if applicable), all deductions, net wages, and the employer's contact information. While employers are permitted to provide these records electronically, they must provide a printed paper copy at no cost if an employee submits a written request for one.

For younger readers

When people do a job, they get paid money. This bill makes sure that when a boss pays a worker, they must give them a special paper or note explaining exactly how the money was counted. It has to list how many hours the person worked, how much they get paid for each hour, and if any money was taken out for taxes or bills. It helps workers check that they are getting the right amount of money. If a worker wants this note on paper instead of on a computer, the boss must give it to them.

Who & Where It Applies

Impacted groups
EmployeesEmployersPayroll Service ProvidersHuman Resources DepartmentsGig Workers
Impacted communities
All

Constitutional & Fiscal Check

None Likely

Estimated cost
None
Estimated revenue
None

Bill Analysis

Both viewpoints
For Progressives
  • Increases transparency for workers by mandating detailed breakdowns of how their pay is calculated, making it significantly easier to identify and combat wage theft.
  • Protects vulnerable, low-income, or elderly workers who may lack internet access or digital literacy by legally requiring employers to provide paper pay stubs upon request.
  • Standardizes pay stub requirements to include piece-rate and hourly breakdowns, ensuring that gig workers and manual laborers receive the same level of financial clarity as salaried employees.
  • Does not explicitly mandate stronger penalties or funding for enforcement, potentially leaving the new requirements toothless against employers who already ignore labor laws.
  • Places the burden on the employee to submit a "written authorization" to receive a paper copy, creating a bureaucratic barrier for workers who may feel intimidated to make such a request.
  • Focuses solely on administrative reporting rather than addressing substantive issues such as low wages or lack of benefits, offering only a procedural improvement rather than economic justice.
For Conservatives
  • Modernizes regulations to explicitly acknowledge and allow electronic records as a standard practice, potentially reducing overhead for businesses that do not receive paper requests.
  • Ensures that the full extent of government deductions and taxes are clearly visible on every pay stub, highlighting the cost of government to the individual taxpayer.
  • Clarifies the contractual exchange between employer and employee by requiring precise documentation of hours and rates, protecting ethical businesses from vague claims regarding underpayment.
  • Imposes additional regulatory burdens and compliance costs on small business owners who must now generate more complex, detailed reports for every single pay period.
  • Interferes with the freedom of private businesses to operate a fully paperless environment by mandating they provide printed copies at their own expense if requested.
  • Creates potential liability traps for employers where minor clerical errors on an itemized statement could be used as grounds for state fines or litigation.

Votes

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Full Bill Text

Changes to existing Rhode Island law · 20 additions · 10 deletions

SECTION 1. Section 28-14-2.1 of the General Laws in Chapter 28-14 entitled "Payment of Wages" is hereby amended to read as follows: 28-14-2.1. Statement of earnings.

(a) On every regular payday, every employer shall furnish to any employee the following:

(1) A statement of the hours worked by that employee during the applicable pay period; provided, that the statement need not be furnished to an employee described in § 28-12-4.3;

(2) A record of all deductions made from that employee’s gross earnings during the pay period together with an explanation of the basis or reason for the deductions; and

(3) For employers engaged only in the commercial construction industry, a record of the employee’s hourly regular rate of pay. As used in this subsection, “commercial construction industry” includes a business that engages in the doing of work or the furnishing of materials, or both, in the building, erection, alteration, or preparation of an improvement on commercial real property. An employer, at the time of each payment of wages, shall furnish to their employee, either as a detachable part of the check, draft, or voucher paying the employee's wages, or separately if wages are paid by personal check or cash, an accurate written itemized statement showing:

(1) Gross wages earned;

(2) Total hours worked by the employee;

(3) The number of piece-rate units earned and any applicable piece rate if the employee is paid on a piece-rate basis;

(4) The amount and purpose of each itemized deduction in understandable language and form;

(5) Net wages earned;

(6) The inclusive dates of the period for which the employee is paid;

(7) The name and address of the legal entity that is the employer; and

(8) All applicable hourly rates in effect during the pay period and the corresponding number of hours worked, at each hourly rate by the employee. The deductions made from payment of wages shall be recorded in ink or other indelible form, properly dated, showing the month, day, and year, and a copy of the statement and the record of the deductions shall be kept on file, in accordance with § 28-14-12. For purposes of this section, "copy" includes a duplicate of the itemized statement provided to an employee or a computer-generated record that accurately shows all of the information required by this section.

(b) All statements and records required to be furnished to an employee by this section may be furnished as an electronic record. The employer shall furnish to an employee a printed or handwritten record, in lieu of an electronic record, at no cost to the employee, when a written authorization from such employee is provided to the employer.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.