By: Meza H.B. No. 1305
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a cost-of-living increase applicable to death benefits
paid under the workers' compensation system.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 408.181, Labor Code, is amended by
amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsection (b-1) to read as
follows:
(b) Subject to Section 408.061, the amount of a death
benefit is equal to 75 percent of the employee's average weekly
wage. Notwithstanding Section 408.061, the amount of a death
benefit is adjusted in accordance with Subsection (b-1) each
calendar year as necessary to reflect inflation.
(b-1) Not later than November 1 of each year, the
commissioner shall set the rate of the adjustment described by
Subsection (b) for the next calendar year to equal the percentage
increase, if any, in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners
and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) most recently published by the Bureau
of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor and
used by the United States Social Security Administration to provide
a cost-of-living adjustment for social security benefit payments
payable beginning in January of the next year. Not later than
January 1 of each year, an insurance carrier shall recompute the
amount of a death benefit to be paid under this section by applying
the adjustment computed by the commissioner under this subsection
to the amount otherwise required to be paid under Subsection (b).
SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies only
to a claim for workers' compensation benefits based on a
compensable injury that occurs on or after the effective date of
this Act. A claim based on a compensable injury that occurs before
the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on
the date the compensable injury occurred, and the former law is
continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.