109.01 Definitions. As used in this chapter:

(1) “Department" means the department of workforce development.

(1r) “Employee" means any person employed by an employer, except that “employee" does not include an officer or director of a corporation, a member or manager of a limited liability company, a partner of a partnership or a joint venture, the owner of a sole proprietorship, an independent contractor or person otherwise excluded under s. 452.38, or a person employed in a managerial, executive, or commissioned sales capacity or in a capacity in which the person is privy to confidential matters involving the employer-employee relationship.

(2) Except as provided in ss. 109.07 (1) (d) and 109.075 (1) (c), “employer" means any person engaged in any activity, enterprise or business employing one or more persons within the state, including the state and its political subdivisions and charitable, nonprofit or tax-exempt organizations and institutions.

(3) “Wage" or “wages" mean remuneration payable to an employee for personal services, including salaries, commissions, holiday and vacation pay, overtime pay, severance pay or dismissal pay, supplemental unemployment benefit plan payments when required under a binding collective bargaining agreement, bonuses and any other similar advantages agreed upon between the employer and the employee or provided by the employer to the employees as an established policy.

(4) “Wage deficiency" means the difference between the amount required by law to be paid and the amount actually paid to an employee.

History: 1975 c. 380, 421; 1989 a. 44; 1995 a. 27 s. 9130 (4); 1997 a. 3, 39, 237; 2003 a. 63; 2015 a. 258.

“Wages" does not include salary owed under a fixed term contract to a discharged employee for the period from the discharge to the end of the contract. DILHR v. Coatings, Inc. 126 Wis. 2d 338, 375 N.W.2d 834 (1985).

Sub. (3) includes vacation pay, supplemental unemployment benefit plan payments, severance pay or dismissal pay as wages. Sub. (3) does not require that the employee perform actual work during the time period for which he is making a wage claim. Such a requirement would foreclose any employees' wage claims for vacation pay, supplemental unemployment benefit plan payments, severance pay, or dismissal pay because in each case the employee is not performing actual work during the time period of the claim. Sliwinski v. City of Milwaukee, 2009 WI App 162, 321 Wis. 2d 774, 777 N.W.2d 88, 08-2141.