TITLE 34 LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Section 8. Employment Security, 34-8-1 through 34-8-280.

ARTICLE 2 DEFINITIONS

34-8-49. Wages.

1. 1. As used in this chapter, the term "wages" means all remuneration for personal services, including commissions and bonuses and the cash value of all remuneration paid in any medium other than cash. The reasonable cash value of remuneration in any medium other than cash shall be estimated and determined in accordance with the rules or regulations prescribed by the Commissioner.
   2. The term "wages" also means, for the purpose of determining benefit rights of a claimant, wages payable but unpaid where the employer has been adjudicated bankrupt.
2. The term "wages" shall not include:
   1. For the purposes of Code Section 34-8-20 and Articles 5 and 6 of this chapter, except Code Sections 34-8-156 and 34-8-157, any remuneration paid in excess of taxable wages. For purposes of this chapter, "taxable wages" means that portion of remuneration paid by an employer to each employee, subject to unemployment insurance contributions for each calendar year which does not exceed the following amounts:
      1. For the period January 1, 1976, through December 31, 1982 - $6,000.00;
      2. For the period January 1, 1983, through December 31, 1985 - $7,000.00;
      3. For the period January 1, 1986, through December 31, 1989 - $7,500.00;
      4. For the period January 1, 1990, through December 31, 2012 - $8,500.00; and
      5. January 1, 2013, and thereafter - $9,500.00;

         provided, however, that in cases of successorship of an employer, the amount of wages paid by the predecessor shall be considered for purposes of this provision as having been paid by the successor employer;

   2. The amount of any payment to or on behalf of an employee under a plan or system established by an employer which makes provision for its employees generally or for a class or classes of its employees, including any amount paid by an employer for insurance or annuities or into a fund to provide for any such payment, on account of:
      1. The termination of an employee's employment relationship because of (i) death, or (ii) retirement for disability, other than any such payment or series of payments which would have been paid to the employee or his or her dependents if the employee's employment relationship had not been so terminated;
      2. The supplementation of unemployment benefits to an individual under the terms of a written agreement, contract, trust arrangement, or other instrument.Such payments shall not be construed to be wages or compensation for personal services under this chapter and benefit payments under this chapter shall not be denied or reduced because of the receipt of payments under such arrangements or plans;
      3. Sickness or accident disability, but, in the case of payments made to an employee or any of his or her dependents, this subparagraph shall exclude from the term "wages" only payments which are received under a workers' compensation law;
      4. Medical and hospitalization expenses in connection with sickness or accident disability;
      5. Death; or
      6. Temporary layoff, but, in the case of payments made to an employee who is temporarily laid off or to any of his or her dependents, this subparagraph shall exclude from the term "wages" only payments made out of a 100 percent vested account in the name of such employee under a pension or profit-sharing plan or trust that is qualified under Section 501(a) of the federal Internal Revenue Code of 1986;
   3. Payment by an employer without deduction from the remuneration of an employee of the tax imposed by Section 3101 of the federal Internal Revenue Code of 1986, with respect to remuneration paid to an employee for domestic service in a private home of the employer or for agricultural labor;
   4. Any remuneration paid for services by an alien, unless such alien is an individual who was lawfully admitted for permanent residence at the time such services were performed, was lawfully present for purposes of performing such services, or otherwise was permanently residing in the United States under color of law;
   5. Any remuneration paid in any medium other than cash to an employee for agricultural labor or for service not in the course of the employer's trade or business;
   6. Any payment on account of sickness or accident disability, or medical or hospitalization expenses in connection with sickness or accident disability, made by an employer to, or on behalf of, an employee after the expiration of six calendar months following the last calendar month in which the employee worked for such employer;
   7. Any payment made to, or on behalf of, an employee or his beneficiary from, under, or to a trust, annuity plan, simplified employee pension plan, annuity contract, exempt governmental deferred compensation plan, supplemental pension benefits plan or trust, or cafeteria plan, as such payments are defined under Section 3306(b)(5) of the federal Internal Revenue Code of 1986; or
   8. Any payment made by an employer to a survivor or the estate of a former employee after the calendar year in which such employee died.
3. Any remuneration not elsewhere included in the definition of wages by this chapter, but for which services are performed within this state and for which an employing unit is liable for any federal tax against which credit may be taken for contributions paid into a state fund, shall, for the purposes of this chapter and notwithstanding any other provisions, constitute wages for employment, but only to the extent that such remuneration constitutes wages on which federal tax is payable.

(Code 1981, §34-8-49, enacted by Ga. L. 1991, p. 139, § 1; Ga. L. 1992, p. 776, § 1; Ga. L. 2012, p. 950, § 1/HB 347.)