45 U.S.C. § 231 — Definitions

For the purposes of this subchapter— **(a)** (1) The term “employer” shall include— (i) any carrier by railroad subject to the jurisdiction of the Surface Transportation Board under part A of subtitle IV of title 49; (ii) any company which is directly or indirectly owned or controlled by, or under common control with, one or more employers as defined in paragraph (i) of this subdivision, and which operates any equipment or facility or performs any service (except trucking service, casual service, and the casual operation of equipment or facilities) in connection with the transportation of passengers or property by railroad, or the receipt, delivery, elevation, transfer in transit, refrigeration or icing, storage, or handling of property transported by railroad; (iii) any receiver, trustee, or other individual or body, judicial or otherwise, when in the possession of the property or operating all or any part of the business of any employer as defined in paragraph (i) or (ii) of this subdivision; (iv) any railroad association, traffic association, tariff bureau, demurrage bureau, weighing and inspection bureau, collection agency and any other association, bureau, agency, or organization which is controlled and maintained wholly or principally by two or more employers as defined in paragraph (i), (ii), or (iii) of this subdivision and which is engaged in the performance of services in connection with or incidental to railroad transportation; and (v) any railway labor organization, national in scope, which has been or may be organized in accordance with the provisions of the Railway Labor Act, as amended [[45 U.S.C. 151](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section151&num=0&edition=prelim) et seq.], and its State and National legislative committees, general committees, insurance departments, and local lodges and divisions, established pursuant to the constitution or bylaws of such organization. (2) Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision (1) of this subsection, the term “employer” shall not include— (i) any company by reason of its being engaged in the mining of coal, the supplying of coal to an employer where delivery is not beyond the mine tipple, and the operation of equipment or facilities therefor, or in any of such activities, and (ii) any street, interurban, or suburban electric railway, unless such railway is operating as a part of a general diesel-railroad system of transportation, but shall not exclude any part of the general diesel-railroad system of transportation now or hereafter operated by any other motive power. The Surface Transportation Board is hereby authorized and directed upon request of the Railroad Retirement Board, or upon complaint of any party interested, to determine after hearing whether any line operated by electric power falls within the terms of this paragraph. **(b)** (1) The term “employee” means (i) any individual in the service of one or more employers for compensation, (ii) any individual who is in the employment relation to one or more employers, and (iii) an employee representative: Provided, however, That the term “employee” shall include an employee of a local lodge or division defined as an employer in subsection (a) only if he was in the service of or in the employment relation to an employer as defined in paragraph (i) of subsection (a)(1) on or after August 29, 1935. (2) The term “employee” shall not include any individual while such individual is engaged in the physical operations consisting of the mining of coal, the preparation of coal, the handling (other than movement by rail with standard railroad locomotives) of coal not beyond the mine tipple, or the loading of coal at the tipple. **(c)** The term “employee representative” means any officer or official representative of a railway labor organization other than a labor organization included in the term “employer” as defined in subsection (a) who before or after August 29, 1935, was in the service of an employer as defined in subsection (a) and who is duly authorized and designated to represent employees in accordance with the Railway Labor Act, as amended [[45 U.S.C. 151](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section151&num=0&edition=prelim) et seq.], and any individual who is regularly assigned to or regularly employed by such officer or official representative in connection with the duties of his office. **(d)** (1) An individual is in the service of an employer whether his service is rendered within or without the United States if— (i) (A) he is subject to the continuing authority of the employer to supervise and direct the manner of rendition of his service, or (B) he is rendering professional or technical services and is integrated into the staff of the employer, or (C) he is rendering, on the property used in the employer’s operations, personal services the rendition of which is integrated into the employer’s operations; and (ii) he renders such service for compensation, or a method of computing the monthly compensation for such service is provided in [section 231b(j) of this title](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section231b/j&num=0&edition=prelim). (2) Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision (1) of this subsection— (i) an individual shall be deemed to be in the service of an employer, other than a local lodge or division or a general committee of a railway-labor-organization employer, not conducting the principal part of its business in the United States only when he is rendering service to it in the United States; (ii) an individual shall be deemed to be in the service of a local lodge or division of a railway-labor-organization employer not conducting the principal part of its business in the United States only if (A) all, or substantially all, the individuals constituting the membership of such local lodge or division are employees of an employer conducting the principal part of its business in the United States; or (B) the headquarters of such local lodge or division is located in the United States; and (iii) an individual shall be deemed to be in the service of a general committee of a railway-labor-organization employer not conducting the principal part of its business in the United States only if (A) he is representing a local lodge or division described in clause (A) or (B) of paragraph (ii); or (B) all, or substantially all, the individuals represented by such general committee are employees of an employer conducting the principal part of its business in the United States; or (C) he acts in the capacity of a general chairman or an assistant general chairman of a general committee which represents individuals rendering service in the United States to an employer, but in such case if his office or headquarters is not located in the United States and the individuals represented by such general committee are employees of an employer not conducting the principal part of its business in the United States only such proportion of the remuneration for such service shall be regarded as compensation as the proportion which the mileage in the United States under the jurisdiction of such general committee bears to the total mileage under its jurisdiction, unless such mileage formula is inapplicable, in which case the Board may prescribe such other formula as it finds to be equitable, and if the application of such mileage formula, or such other formula as the Board may prescribe, would result in the compensation of the individual being less than 10 per centum of his remuneration for such service no part of such remuneration shall be regarded as compensation. (3) Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivisions (1) and (2) of this subsection, an individual not a citizen or resident of the United States shall not be deemed to be in the service of an employer when rendering service outside the United States to an employer who is required under the laws applicable in the place where the service is rendered to employ therein, in whole or in part, citizens or residents thereof. For purposes of this subdivision, the laws applicable on August 29, 1935, in the place where the service is rendered shall be deemed to have been applicable there at all times prior to that date. **(e)** (1) An individual shall be deemed to have been in the employment relation to an employer on August 29, 1935, if— (i) he was on that date on leave of absence from his employment, expressly granted to him by the employer by whom he was employed, or by a duly authorized representative of such employer, and the grant of such leave of absence will have been established to the satisfaction of the Board before July 1947; (ii) he was in the service of an employer after August 29, 1935, and before January 1946 in each of six calendar months, whether or not consecutive; (iii) before August 29, 1935, he did not retire and was not retired or discharged from the service of the last employer by whom he was employed or its corporate or operating successor, but (A) solely by reason of his physical or mental disability he ceased before August 29, 1935, to be in the service of such employer and thereafter remained continuously disabled until he attained age sixty-five or until August 1945, or (B) solely for such last stated reason an employer by whom he was employed before August 29, 1935, or an employer who is its successor did not on or after August 29, 1935, and before August 1945 call him to return to service, or (C) if he was so called he was solely for such reason unable to render service in six calendar months as provided in paragraph (ii); or (iv) he was on August 29, 1935, absent from the service of an employer by reason of a discharge which, within one year after the effective date thereof, was protested, to an appropriate labor representative or to the employer, as wrongful, and which was followed within ten years of the effective date thereof by his reinstatement in good faith to his former service with all his senority 11 So in original. Probably should be “seniority”. rights. (2) Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision (1) of this subsection, an individual shall not be deemed to have been in the employment relation to an employer on August 29, 1935, if before that date he was granted a pension or gratuity on the basis of which a pension was awarded to him pursuant to section 6 of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1937 [[45 U.S.C. 228f](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section228f&num=0&edition=prelim)], or if during the last payroll period before August 29, 1935, in which he rendered service to an employer he was not in the service of an employer, in accordance with subsection (d), with respect to any service in such payroll period, or if he could have been in the employment relation to an employer only by reason of his having been, either before or after August 29, 1935, in the service of a local lodge or division defined as an employer in subsection (a). **(f)** (1) The term “years of service” shall mean the number of years an individual as an employee shall have rendered service to one or more employers for compensation or received remuneration for time lost, and shall be computed in accordance with the provisions of [section 231b(i) of this title](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section231b/i&num=0&edition=prelim). Twelve calendar months, consecutive or otherwise, in each of which an employee has rendered such service or received such wages for time lost, shall constitute a year of service. Ultimate fractions shall be taken at their actual value. (2) Where service prior to August 29, 1935, may be included in the computation of years of service as provided in subdivision (3) of [section 231b(i) of this title](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section231b/i&num=0&edition=prelim), it may be included as to— (i) service rendered to a person which was an employer on August 29, 1935, irrespective of whether such person was an employer at the time such service was rendered; (ii) service rendered to any express company, sleeping-car company, or carrier by railroad which was a predecessor of a company which, on August 29, 1935, was an employer as defined in paragraph (i) of subsection (a)(1), irrespective of whether such predecessor was an employer at the time such service was rendered; and (iii) service rendered to a person not an employer in the performance of operations involving the use of standard railroad equipment if such operations were performed by an employer on August 29, 1935. **(g)** (1) For purposes of [section 231b(i)(2) of this title](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section231b/i/2&num=0&edition=prelim), an individual shall be deemed to have been in “military service” when commissioned or enrolled in the active service of the land or naval forces of the United States and until resignation or discharge therefrom; and the service of any individual in any reserve component of the land or naval forces of the United States, while serving in the land or naval forces of the United States for any period, even though less than thirty days, shall be deemed to have been active service in such force during such period. (2) For purposes of [section 231b(i)(2) of this title](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section231b/i/2&num=0&edition=prelim), a “war service period” shall mean (A) any war period, or (B) with respect to any particular individual, any period during which such individual (i) having been in military service at the end of a war period, was required to continue in military service, or (ii) was required by call of the President, or by any Act of Congress or regulation, order, or proclamation pursuant thereto, to enter and continue in military service, or (C) any period after September 7, 1939, with respect to which a state of national emergency was duly declared to exist which requires a strengthening of the national defense. For purposes of [section 231b(i)(2) of this title](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section231b/i/2&num=0&edition=prelim), the period beginning on June 15, 1948, and ending on December 15, 1950, shall be deemed to be a war service period with respect to any individual who without intervening employment not covered by this subchapter rendered service as an employee to an employer under this subchapter in the year such individual was released from active military service or in the year immediately following such year. (3) For purposes of [section 231b(i)(2) of this title](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section231b/i/2&num=0&edition=prelim), a “war period” shall be deemed to have begun on whichever of the following dates is the earliest: (A) the date on which the Congress of the United States declared war; or (B) the date as of which the Congress of the United States declared that a state of war has existed; or (C) the date on which war was declared by one or more foreign states against the United States; or (D) the date on which any part of the United States or any territory under its jurisdiction was invaded or attacked by any armed force of one or more foreign states; or (E) the date on which the United States engaged in armed hostilities for the purpose of preserving the Union or of maintaining in any State of the Union a republican form of government. (4) For purposes of [section 231b(i)(2) of this title](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section231b/i/2&num=0&edition=prelim), a “war period” shall be deemed to have ended on the date on which hostilities ceased. **(h)** (1) The term “compensation” means any form of money remuneration paid to an individual for services rendered as an employee to one or more employers or as an employee representative, including remuneration paid for time lost as an employee, but remuneration paid for time lost shall be deemed earned in the month in which such time is lost. A payment made by an employer to an individual through the employer’s payroll shall be presumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, to be compensation for service rendered by such individual as an employee of the employer in the period with respect to which the payment is made. Compensation earned in any calendar month before 1947 shall be deemed paid in such month regardless of whether or when payment will have been in fact made, and compensation earned in any calendar year after 1946 but paid after the end of such calendar year shall be deemed to be compensation paid in the calendar year in which it will have been earned if it is so reported by the employer before February 1 of the next succeeding calendar year or if the employee establishes, subject to the provisions of [section 231h of this title](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section231h&num=0&edition=prelim), the period during which such compensation will have been earned. (2) An employee shall be deemed to be paid “for time lost” the amount he is paid by an employer with respect to an identifiable period of absence from the active service of the employer, including absence on account of personal injury, and the amount he is paid by the employer for loss of earnings resulting from his displacement to a less remunerative position or occupation. If a payment is made by an employer with respect to a personal injury and includes pay for time lost, the total payment shall be deemed to be paid for time lost unless, at the time of payment, a part of such payment is specifically apportioned to factors other than time lost, in which event only such part of the payment as is not so apportioned shall be deemed to be paid for time lost. (3) Solely for purposes of determining amounts to be included in the compensation of an employee, the term “compensation” shall also include cash tips received by an employee in any calendar month in the course of his employment by an employer unless the amount of such cash tips is less than $20. (4) Tips included as compensation by reason of the provisions of subdivision (3) shall be deemed to be paid at the time a written statement including such tips is furnished to the employer pursuant to section 6053(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 [[26 U.S.C. 6053(a)](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title26-section6053/a&num=0&edition=prelim)] or, if no statement including such tips is so furnished, at the time received. Tips so deemed to be paid in any month shall be deemed paid for services rendered in such month. (5) In determining compensation, there shall be attributable as compensation paid to an employee in calendar months in which he is in military service creditable under [section 231b(i)(2) of this title](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section231b/i/2&num=0&edition=prelim), in addition to any other compensation paid to him with respect to such months— (i) for each such calendar month prior to 1968, $160; (ii) for each such calendar month after 1967 and prior to 1975, $260; and (iii) for each such calendar month after 1974, the amount which is creditable as such individual’s “wages” under section 209(d) of the Social Security Act [[42 U.S.C. 409(d)](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title42-section409/d&num=0&edition=prelim)]. (6) Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding subdivisions of this subsection, the term “compensation” shall not include— (i) tips, except as is provided under subdivision (3) of this subsection; (ii) remuneration for service which is performed by a non-resident alien individual for the period he is temporarily present in the United States as a nonimmigrant under subparagraph (F) or (J) of [section 1101(a)(15) of title 8](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title8-section1101/a/15&num=0&edition=prelim), as amended, and which is performed to carry out the purpose specified in subparagraph (F) or (J), as the case may be; (iii) remuneration earned in the service of a local lodge or division of a railway-labor-organization employer with respect to any calendar month in which the amount of such remuneration is less than $25; (iv) remuneration for service as a delegate to a national or international convention of a railway-labor-organization employer if the individual rendering such service has not previously rendered service, other than as such a delegate, which may be included in his “years of service;” (v) the amount of any payment (including any amount paid by an employer for insurance or annuities, or into a fund, to provide for any such payment) made to, or on behalf of, an employee or any of his dependents under a plan or system established by an employer which makes provision for his employees generally (or for his employees generally and their dependents) or for a class or classes of his employees (or for a class or classes of his employees and their dependents), on account of sickness or accident disability or medical or hospitalization expenses in connection with sickness or accident disability; and (vi) an amount paid specifically—either as an advance, as reimbursement or allowance—for traveling or other bona fide and necessary expenses incurred or reasonably expected to be incurred in the business of the employer provided any such payment is identified by the employer either by a separate payment or by specifically indicating the separate amounts where both wages and expense reimbursement or allowance are combined in a single payment. (7) The term “compensation” includes any separation allowance or subsistence allowance paid under any benefit schedule provided under section 701 of title VII of the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 [[45 U.S.C. 797](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section797&num=0&edition=prelim)] 22 See References in Text note below. and any termination allowance paid under section 702 of that Act [[45 U.S.C. 797a](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section797a&num=0&edition=prelim)], but does not include any other benefits payable under that title [[45 U.S.C. 797](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section797&num=0&edition=prelim) et seq.]. The total amount of any subsistence allowance paid under a benefit schedule provided pursuant to section 701 of the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 shall be considered as having been earned in the month in which the employee first timely filed a claim for such an allowance. (8) Notwithstanding any other provision of this subchapter, for the purposes of sections 231b(a)(1), 231c(a)(1), and 231c(f)(1) of this title, the term “compensation” includes any payment from any source to an employee or employee representative if such payment is subject to tax under section 3201 or 3211 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 [[26 U.S.C. 3201](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title26-section3201&num=0&edition=prelim), 3211]. **(i)** The term “Board” means the Railroad Retirement Board. **(j)** The term “company” includes corporations, associations, and joint-stock companies. **(k)** The term “employee” includes an officer of an employer. **(l)** The term “person” means an individual, a partnership, an association, a joint-stock company, a corporation, or the United States or any other governmental body. **(m)** The term “United States,” when used in a geographical sense, means the States and the District of Columbia. **(n)** The term “Social Security Act” means the Social Security Act as amended [[42 U.S.C. 301](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title42-section301&num=0&edition=prelim) et seq.] from time to time. **(o)** An individual shall be deemed to have “a current connection with the railroad industry” at the time an annuity begins to accrue to him and at death if, in any thirty consecutive calendar months before the month in which an annuity under this subchapter begins to accrue to him, or the month in which he dies if that first occurs, he will have been in service as an employee in not less than twelve calendar months and, if such thirty calendar months do not immediately precede such month, he will not have been engaged in any regular employment other than employment for an employer or employment with the Department of Transportation, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Surface Transportation Board, the National Mediation Board, the National Transportation Safety Board, the State-owned railroad (as defined in the Alaska Railroad Transfer Act of 1982 [[45 U.S.C. 1201](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section1201&num=0&edition=prelim) et seq.]), so long as it is an instrumentality of the State of Alaska, or the Railroad Retirement Board in the period before such month and after the end of such thirty months. For purposes of [section 231a(b) of this title](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section231a/b&num=0&edition=prelim) and [section 231a(d) of this title](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section231a/d&num=0&edition=prelim) only, an individual shall be deemed also to have “a current connection with the railroad industry” if, after having completed twenty-five years of service, such individual involuntarily and without fault ceased rendering service as an employee under this subchapter and did not thereafter decline an offer of employment in the same class or craft as the individual’s most recent employee service. For purposes of [section 231a(d) of this title](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section231a/d&num=0&edition=prelim) only, an individual shall be deemed to have a “current connection with the railroad industry” if a pension will have been payable to that individual under the Railroad Retirement Act of 1937 [[45 U.S.C. 228a](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section228a&num=0&edition=prelim) et seq.] or a retirement annuity based on service of not less than 10 years (as computed in awarding the annuity) will have begun to accrue to that individual prior to 1948 under the Railroad Retirement Act of 1937. For the purposes of [section 231a(d) of this title](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title45-section231a/d&num=0&edition=prelim) only, an individual shall be deemed also to have a “current connection with the railroad industry” if he will have completed ten years of service and (A) he would be neither fully nor currently insured under the Social Security Act [[42 U.S.C. 301](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title42-section301&num=0&edition=prelim) et seq.] if his service as an employee after December 31, 1936, were included in the term “employment” as defined in that Act, or (B) he has no quarters of coverage under the Social Security Act. **(p)** The term “annuity” means a monthly sum which is payable on the first day of each calendar month for the accrual during the preceding calendar month. **(q)** The terms “quarter” and “calendar quarter” shall mean a period of three calendar months ending on March 31, June 30, September 30, or December 31. **(r)** For purposes of this subchapter, a person shall be considered to be permanently insured under the Social Security Act [[42 U.S.C. 301](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title42-section301&num=0&edition=prelim) et seq.] on December 31, 1974, if he or she would be fully insured within the meaning of section 214(a) of that Act [[42 U.S.C. 414(a)](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title42-section414/a&num=0&edition=prelim)] when he or she attains age 62 solely on the basis of his or her quarters of coverage under that Act acquired prior to January 1, 1975.