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Committee backs bill allowing hiring preference for military spouses in state jobs
Summary
The Senate Military Committee adopted an amendment and voted to report an engrossed committee substitute for House Bill 3080 to the full Senate, a measure that would authorize a hiring preference for military spouses and clarify such a preference is not an unlawful discriminatory practice under the West Virginia Human Rights Act.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Senate Military Committee adopted a strike-and-insert amendment and voted to report an engrossed committee substitute for House Bill 3080 to the full Senate with a recommendation that it pass as amended.
House Bill 3080 would amend two sections of the West Virginia Code (16B-17-19 and 16B-17-9a) to make clear that granting a hiring preference to a military spouse is not an unlawful discriminatory practice under the West Virginia Human Rights Act, provided the candidate otherwise meets the knowledge, skills and eligibility requirements for the job.
Committee counsel said the strike-and-insert adds a definition of “military spouse” taken from federal law, defining the term as the husband or wife of an active-duty member of the armed forces who has made a permanent change of duty station and whose spouse followed to the new duty station located in the state. The amendment also included technical cleanup; a title amendment was adopted by the committee.
During discussion, the Junior Senator from the Fifteenth spoke in support of the bill, describing the difficulty military spouses face securing employment because frequent permanent changes of station disrupt the ability to establish roots and employer relationships. The senator cited studies by national military spouse advocacy groups, saying that employment rates for military spouses trail comparable civilians (the senator characterized a comparison as roughly 80% employment for the general population with similar education versus about 38% for military spouses).
Counsel confirmed the statute would not require employers to hire a military spouse; rather, where two candidates are otherwise equally qualified, choosing a military spouse would not be considered unlawful under the Human Rights Act. The committee adopted the strike-and-insert amendment and later voted to report the bill to the full Senate with recommendation to pass as amended. The transcript records the decisions as voice votes; the chair announced the motions carried after members responded “aye.”
If the full Senate and governor approve the measure, state law would explicitly permit a hiring preference for military spouses in the circumstances described by the bill.
