Effective July 1, 2019 the State of Maryland adopted new legislation requiring contractors performing work on State of Maryland contracts to provide health insurance to all employees on the jobsite. In addition, the employer must certify they are contributing at a minimum 50% of the employee premium or contribute a minimum employer contribution to a company-sponsored health insurance plan equal to 5% of the total Social Security wage base payroll of the employer.
The new legislation covers all employers regardless of their size and covers all contracts regardless of their status, i.e., prevailing wage jobs or non-prevailing wage jobs. In addition, it appears the new legislation covers all employees employed by out of state contractors working on State of Maryland contracts.
In an effort to help contractors meet these requirements ABC has developed a program which can be implemented to meet these tests without significant costs or disruption to your current health insurance programs. In addition, the State has granted contractors a phase in to become compliant which will last until July 2020.
All contributions to existing health insurance plans or to the new ABC alternative are considered compliant with the new law and can be a credit against any fringe available through specific wage determinations.
For more information, call Dick Asher, director of regulation and compliance for ABC Greater Baltimore, at (443) 617-2668 x111.