261—67.8(15) Authority procedure for establishing wage requirements. Created jobs shall meet the qualifying wage threshold requirements as established pursuant to this rule and as indicated in an agreement entered into pursuant to Iowa Code section 15.494 as enacted by 2024 Iowa Acts, Senate File 574, section 6. Jobs that do not meet the qualifying wage threshold requirements will not be counted toward a business’s job obligations.
	67.8(1) For the purposes of establishing qualifying wage threshold as defined in Iowa Code section 15.491 as enacted by 2024 Iowa Acts, Senate File 574, section 3, “laborshed area” means the geographic area surrounding an employment center from which the employment center draws its commuting workers as defined by the department of workforce development.
	67.8(2) The authority will update the qualifying wage thresholds annually each fiscal year. The thresholds will take effect on September 1 of each fiscal year and remain in effect until August 31 of the following fiscal year. If the authority determines that the laborshed wage of a laborshed area would increase by more than one dollar per hour, the authority will limit the increase to the qualifying wage threshold for that laborshed area for that annual update to one dollar per hour.
	67.8(3) The authority will calculate the laborshed wage as follows:
	a. 	The most current covered wage and employment data available from the department of workforce development will be used.
	b. 	The wage will be computed as a mean wage figure and represented in terms of an hourly wage rate.
	c. 	Only the wages paid by employers for jobs performed within the first two zones of a laborshed area will be included.
	d. 	The wages paid by employers in the following categories will be excluded from the calculation: government, retail trade, health care and social assistance, and accommodations and food service. The wages paid by employers in all other categories will be included in the calculation.
	e. 	To the extent that a laborshed area includes zip codes from states other than Iowa, the wages paid by employers in those zip codes may be included if the department of workforce development has finalized a data-sharing agreement with the state in question and has received the necessary data.
	f. 	Only those wages within two standard deviations from the mean wage will be included.
	67.8(4) To determine the wages paid to the employees of an eligible business, the authority will include only monetary compensation, represented in terms of an hourly rate, paid by an employer to an employee for work or services provided, typically on a weekly or biweekly basis. The wage will not include nonregular forms of compensation, such as bonuses, unusual overtime pay, commissions, stock options, pensions, retirement or death benefits, unemployment benefits, life or other insurance, or other fringe benefits.
[ARC 8046C, IAB 6/12/24, effective 5/17/24]