Committee orders review of employer lodging allowance, cites low $32.56 weekly rate

The House Committee on General & Housing heard testimony and agreed to seek a formal review of the statutory lodging allowance employers may deduct from employee wages, directing the Department of Labor to produce a written report by Dec. 1, 2026.

Representative David Durfee, chair of the House Agriculture, Food and Seed Forestry Committee, told the committee the lodging allowance figure in state law "is something less than $40 for, for an employee" per week and said the number’s origins and method of adjustment merited a closer look. "So my suggestion was ... it might look at, asking the Department of Labor to spend some time looking at the formula and then reporting back to the legislature," Durfee said.

Sophie Sedatomy, legislative counsel for the Office of Legislative Council, read draft language from H.403 that would require the Commissioner of Labor, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture, to submit a written report to the House Committee on General & Housing and specified Senate committees addressing how rates are set, whether the methodology should be updated, whether a separate farmworker lodging rate is needed, and any legislative recommendations.

During the meeting, Sedatomy displayed the Department of Labor’s mandatory poster and calculation formula and told members the current lodging-allowance calculation yields $32.56 per week. "For a week, it's, $32.56," Sedatomy said. Several members described that figure as unrealistic when compared with actual housing costs.

Members debated scope and recipients. Several participants noted the statutory allowance applies to any employer that provides housing, not only farm employers, and asked that the Agency of Commerce (ACCD) be added to consultations. The committee agreed—by consensus rather than a formal roll-call vote—to ask counsel to revise the H.403 draft to (a) request a report rather than compel a legislative recommendation and (b) add ACCD and the House Economic Development committee to the list of consultees and recipients.

Committee members also discussed policy and implementation questions the report should address, including whether the current formula’s starting point is defensible, whether tying the figure to inflation is appropriate given how small the original base was, and how any change would interact with payroll and tax treatment of employer-provided housing. A member asked for tax-law expertise when the committee later takes testimony on the subject.

The committee directed staff to produce a revised draft reflecting the changes and to return H.403 to the agenda for further consideration; no formal vote on a final bill text was taken at the meeting.

The Department of Labor, the Secretary of Agriculture, ACCD and legislative staff were identified as key respondents to the committee’s request. The committee set an internal target (the draft language references a report due before Dec. 1, 2026) for the agency response and requested the report include background on the current methodology, whether it should be updated, whether a separate farmworker lodging rate is warranted, and any legislative options.