(a) "Wages" means all remuneration for personal service, including commissions, gratuities customarily received by an individual in the course of employment from persons other than the employing unit, as long as such gratuities equal or exceed an amount of not less than $20 each month and which are required to be reported to the employer by the employee, bonuses and the cash value of all remuneration in any medium other than cash except for agricultural labor and domestic service. The term "wages" includes remuneration for service rendered to the state as a member of the state National Guard or Air National Guard only when serving on a temporary basis pursuant to a call made by the Governor under sections one and two, article one-d, chapter fifteen of this code.
(b) The term "wages" does not include:
(1) That part of the remuneration which, after remuneration equal to $8,000 or, after the amendment and reenactment of this section during the 2009 legislative session, the threshold wage is paid during a calendar year to an individual by an employer or his or her predecessor with respect to employment during any calendar year, is paid to such individual by such employer during such calendar year unless that part of the remuneration is subject to a tax under a federal law imposing a tax against which credit may be taken for contributions required to be paid into a state unemployment fund. For the purposes of this section, the term "employment" includes service constituting employment under any unemployment compensation law of another state; or which as a condition for full tax credit against the tax imposed by the federal Unemployment Tax Act is required to be covered under this chapter; and, except that for the purposes of sections one, ten, eleven and thirteen, article six of this chapter, all remuneration earned by an individual in employment shall be credited to the individual and included in his or her computation of base period wages: Provided, That the remuneration paid to an individual by an employer with respect to employment in another state or other states upon which contributions were required of and paid by such employer under an unemployment compensation law of such other state or states shall be included as a part of the remuneration equal to the amounts of $8,000 or, after the amendment and reenactment of this section during the 2009 legislative session, the threshold wage herein referred to. In applying such limitation on the amount of remuneration that is taxable, an employer shall be accorded the benefit of all or any portion of such amount which may have been paid by its predecessor or predecessors: Provided, however, That if the definition of the term "wages" as contained in Section 3306(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended, is amended to include remuneration in excess of $8,000 or, after the amendment and reenactment of this section during the 2009 legislative session, the threshold wage paid to an individual by an employer under the federal Unemployment Tax Act during any calendar year, wages for the purposes of this definition shall include remuneration paid in a calendar year to an individual by an employer subject to this chapter or his or her predecessor with respect to employment during any calendar year up to an amount equal to the amount of remuneration taxable under the federal Unemployment Tax Act;