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Committee approves portable-benefits bill to let independent contractors carry voluntary accounts
Summary
The House Corporations Committee voted to pass Senate File 41, creating voluntary portable-benefits accounts for independent contractors (health, retirement, vision, dental, life, income replacement); sponsor said it targets about 65,000 Wyoming independent contractors and the bill passed on a 7-0 roll call with two members excused.
The House Corporations Committee voted to report Senate File 41 (engrossed) out of committee after testimony and brief member questions about portability, tax treatment and rulemaking.
Sponsor Senator Olsson said the bill creates portable benefits accounts that independent contractors and employers may elect to use to fund benefits that follow a worker from job to job, and emphasized all participation is voluntary. "This bill provides independent contractors with an opportunity to access portable benefits that they can carry from one job to the next," the sponsor told the committee, noting the measure uses existing Wyoming statutory definitions of independent contractor.
Committee members asked how accounts would operate across state lines and whether benefits would be pre-tax. The sponsor said only a handful of states currently have portable-benefits laws, cited Utah and Kansas as models, and described how some benefits (retirement or HSA-like accounts) would function similarly to IRAs or HSAs and could be structured as pre-tax options. The bill includes a role for the Department of Workforce Services in rulemaking.
Supporters included business and financial stakeholders. Tyler Lynholm, state director for Americans for Prosperity, praised the voluntary design and said the measure helps bridge benefit access for part‑time and gig workers without mandating employment status changes. Shane Schulz, representing Wyoming credit unions, said many financial institutions are comfortable serving as the depository or program manager for portable-benefits accounts and that banks and credit unions were included in statutory definitions vetted on the Senate side.
Sponsor amendment: The committee adopted a sponsor amendment clarifying the cross-reference for the independent-contractor definition to ensure both relevant statutory citations are included.
Vote and next steps: The committee called a roll-call vote on the engrossed bill; the clerk recorded seven ayes and two excused members. The committee reported SF41 out of committee and it will proceed through the next legislative steps.
Notes: The sponsor said Wyoming has about 65,000 independent contractors who could potentially use the accounts; the bill leaves employer and employee participation voluntary and contains opt-out provisions (contractors may opt out at any time; employers giving notice may terminate contributions with 60 days' notice). The bill does not itself resolve all interstate portability or tax-reporting questions and sponsors indicated additional rulemaking and implementation work would follow.
