2023 Nevada Legislature – Industry Specific Changes, Part II

Below is a supplemental summary of new laws passed by the 2023 Nevada Legislature that may impact employers in specific industries. For each, we have provided a link to Nevada’s legislative website where you can view the final text of the bill (click on “As Enrolled”).

Some of these bills may require a change to your policies and procedures. If you have questions about these bills or need assistance with such policy changes, please contact a KZA attorney.

Be sure to check Issue 27 of the KZA Employer Report for other new bills. The summary below supplements Issue 27 with additional bills that have now become law.    

AB 503 – Background checks and fingerprinting, schools, therapists and counselors, funeral services, cannabis establishments, dentists. This bill revises background check requirements for school volunteers and changes procedures for teachers and other educational personnel. It also builds in different requirements for public entities versus private schools as to background checks. It further makes changes to the procedures of the Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact, and requires criminal record checks of therapists and counselors as well as embalmers, funeral directors, and crematorium operators. This bill also clarifies certain definitions related to cannabis establishments. This bill’s changes became effective on June 15, 2023.

SB 82 – Public works. This bill makes several changes to the apprentice requirements for contractors or subcontractors engaged on public works, including removing a threshold number of employees on a project before the use of an apprentice is required, providing flexibility when a union does not have an apprentice available, and defining new reporting requirements. It amends NRS 338.01165. Most of these changes become effective on January 1, 2024.

SB 226 – Public works. This bill is intended to close a “loophole” in Nevada’s prevailing wage law to ensure that prevailing wage applies to lease-purchase and installment-purchase agreements by local governments, including the use of such agreements for the construction, alteration, repair or remodeling of an improvement. It also allows an organization to partner with a state agency or local government and provide private financing only for the construction of a hospital, medical education building or medical research building in this State if the organization: (1) qualifies as a tax-exempt organization and a supporting organization under certain provisions of the Internal Revenue Code; and (2) is organized and operated to support a state agency or local government in the construction of hospitals or such medical buildings. This bill became effective on June 15, 2023.

AB 391 – Public works. This bill allows a local government to enter into a prehire agreement for a public work. This agreement may contain a preference for hiring labor on the public work to local residents who reside within the local government’s jurisdiction, within a certain specified distance of that jurisdiction, or within a certain geographic area within that jurisdiction. The bill clarifies that this authority does not authorize a contractor to pay any worker on the public work less than the applicable prevailing wage. This law became effective on June 15, 2023.

SB 1 of the 35th Special Session – Public works, railroad companies, monorails. This bill was passed during a special session of the Nevada Legislature, convened on June 7 and closed on June 14, 2023. While the focus of SB 1 was on a major league baseball stadium project, a few previously vetoed bills were repackaged into this bill and passed as part of SB 1. As such, Section 38 of SB 1 removes the prevailing wage exemption from NRS 338.080 for work performed by or for any railroad company. Further, Section 40 amends NRS 705.690 to remove the exemption from public work for “work of or incident to the installation and operation of a monorail.”  These changes become effective on October 1, 2023.  

KZA Employer Report articles are for general information only; they are not intended and should not be construed to be legal advice. Reading or replying to such articles does not establish an attorney-client relationship. In addition, because the subject matters and applicable laws discussed in Employer Report articles are often in a state of change and not always applicable to every type of business entity or organization, readers should consult with counsel before making decisions based on the same.