Amendments to State Unemployment Insurance Laws
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Employment and Training Administration
Washington, D.C. 20210
REPORT ON STATE LEGISLATION
REPORT NO. 3
October 2008
| ALABAMA | HB 427 (Act No. 500) |
ENACTED and EFFECTIVE May 29, 2008 |
|---|---|---|
| Financing | ||
| Permits the withdrawal of up to $7,940,119 of Reed Act monies from the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund for administrative purposes effective from May 29, 2008, until September 30, 2009. Provides that whatever amount is withdrawn will not change the Employer Tax Schedules for the calendar year beginning January 1, 2010. | ||
| Monetary Entitlement | ||
| Increases the weekly maximum benefit amount from $235 to $255 for benefit years beginning on or after July 6, 2008, and to $265 for benefit years beginning on or after July 5, 2009. | ||
| ALASKA | SB 120 (CH 45) |
ENACTED and EFFECTIVE May 28, 2008 or as otherwise indicated |
|---|---|---|
| Administration | ||
| Establishes new requirements concerning the confidentiality and disclosure of certain departmental records, reports, and wage and unemployment compensation information including required disclosure to the Department of Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Health and Human Services for specified purposes only. | ||
| Financing | ||
| Changes the percentage of the average benefit cost rate used to determine each employer’s contribution rate from 80 percent to 76 percent beginning January 1, 2009, and 73 percent beginning January 1, 2010.
Changes the percentage of the average benefit cost rate used to determine the contribution rate of each employee of a contributing employer from 20 percent to 24 percent beginning January 1, 2009, and 27 percent beginning January 1, 2010. |
||
| Monetary Entitlement | ||
| Increases the minimum weekly benefit amount from $44 to $56 and the maximum weekly benefit amount from $248 to $370 effective January 1, 2009.
Increases the minimum base period wages required for the minimum weekly benefit amount from $1,000 to $2,500 effective January 1, 2009. Increases the minimum base period wages required for the maximum weekly benefit amount from $26,750 to $42,000 effective January 1, 2009. |
||
| ARIZONA | HB 2206 (CH 36) |
ENACTED and EFFECTIVE April 15, 2008 |
|---|---|---|
| Administration | ||
| Allows the department the option of serving determination and reconsideration notices to employing units by electronic means, and no longer requires if mailing such notices that they be certified. | ||
| Financing | ||
Extinguishes an employer's obligation for any contributions, payments in lieu of contributions, interest or penalties that are required to be collected by the department for any period, if not previously satisfied, 6 years after the amounts were determined due unless one of the following circumstances applies:
(Previous law required no time limit for collecting contributions, payments in lieu of contributions, interest, or penalties.) Provides that if a tax obligation is extinguished, any related liens for those obligations are also extinguished. Provides that any amount of contributions, interest or penalties for wages and periods that are assessed by the Internal Revenue Service as subject to the Federal Unemployment Tax Act against which credit may be taken for contributions required to be paid into a state unemployment fund by employers subject to the federal law must be determined by the department to be due regardless of the date the contributions, payments in lieu of contributions, interest or penalties became delinquent. Repeals the provision requiring the department to issue a release to the person against whom the lien is claimed once the lien has been satisfied, and enacts new provisions regarding the release or subordination of liens. |
||
| LOUISIANA | HB 1104 (Act No. 743) |
ENACTED and EFFECTIVE July 3, 2008 |
|---|---|---|
| Administration | ||
| Changes the department’s name from the Department of Labor to the Louisiana Workforce Commission and the secretary’s title from Secretary of Labor to Executive Director. Establishes new requirements concerning the confidentiality and disclosure of certain employment data including disclosure for compiling statistics for performance and certain research purposes. Establishes new civil and criminal penalties for persons who violate such provisions. |
||
| LOUISIANA | HB 1165 (Act No. 169) |
ENACTED and EFFECTIVE June 12, 2008 |
|---|---|---|
| Financing | ||
| Revises procedure 3 and adds procedure 4 to the table that provides for the taxable wage base, the formula for computing benefits, and the maximum weekly benefit amount (MWBA) based upon the applied trust fund balance range as follows. When the applied trust fund balance is:
|
||
| Monetary Entitlement | ||
| Increases the maximum weekly benefit amount from $258 to $284. Changes the duration of benefits from whichever is the lesser of 26 times the weekly benefit amount or 27 percent of wages in insured work to 26 times the weekly benefit amount (from 21-26 weeks to 26 weeks). |
||
| LOUISIANA | SB 168 (Act No. 510) HB 186 (Act No. 512) |
ENACTED and EFFECTIVE June 27, 2008 ENACTED and EFFECTIVE June 28, 2008 |
|---|---|---|
| Financing | ||
| Requires the benefits paid pursuant to specific executive orders and hurricane-related layoffs which are chargeable to employers’ accounts and reimbursable not be recouped. (Prior law required the charges be deferred, without assessment of penalty and interest until July 1, 2008, to allow time for such benefit charges to be identified and quantified and for payment arrangements to be made through loans, grants, or state or federal legislation.) Provides that in the event that any employer pursuant to this provision was insured by private entities offering any form of insurances, bonds, certificates of deposit, or any other form of guarantee against unemployment claims chargeable to the employer's account, the state will have the right to recoup such funds from those private entities or their insurer for repayment of funds paid out of the unemployment compensation trust fund for any unemployment claims covered in this provision. Repeals the provision authorizing the administrator upon request by the employing unit to negotiate payment terms for benefit charges assessed as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and specific executive orders, and specifying the payment terms without assessment of penalty and interest, will be made quarterly for periods not to exceed 2 years, beginning July 1, 2008. |
||
| MISSISSIPPI | SB 2011a (CH 43) |
ENACTED July 2, 2008 EFFECTIVE July 1, 2008 |
|---|---|---|
| Monetary Entitlement | ||
| Increases the weekly maximum benefit amount from $210 to $230, for benefit years beginning on or after July 1, 2008, and to $235, for benefit years beginning on or after July 1, 2009. Repeals the above provision July 1, 2010. |
||
| NEW HAMPSHIRE | HB 690 (CH 275) |
ENACTED June 27, 2008 EFFECTIVE June 27, 2008 or as otherwise indicated |
|---|---|---|
| Financing | ||
| Extends the effective date from July 1, 2007, to July 1, 2008, of the provision for the discount rate in the contribution rates based on the amounts in the unemployment fund on September 30 of the preceding calendar year and the provision that the minimum contribution rate for the above cannot be less than 0.10 percent.
Provides, effective July 1, 2008, that if the unemployment compensation trust fund balance is $200,000,000 or more on September 30 of the preceding calendar year, and if the commissioner of the department of employment security determines that the health of the New Hampshire business environment and the security of existing jobs would be threatened by decreasing the discount rate from every employer's contribution rate, then the commissioner may adjust the discount rate ½ percent more than otherwise applicable. Defines "discount rate" to mean the amount to be subtracted from every employer's contribution rate. Repeals, effective July 1, 2009, the above provisions. |
||
| NEW HAMPSHIRE | SB 502 (CH 297) |
ENACTED June 27, 2008 EFFECTIVE August 26, 2008 |
|---|---|---|
| Nonmonetary Eligibility | ||
| Defines "full-time work" to mean work in employment of at least 37.5 hours a week. Defines "part-time work" to mean work in employment of at least 20 hours a week but less than 37.5 hours a week. Amends the benefit eligibility conditions to provide that an unemployed individual will be eligible to receive benefits:
Provides that an individual who is seeking only part-time work will be deemed to be partially unemployed only in any week during which the individual was employed fewer than 20 hours. (Previously, the individual had to meet certain eligibility requirements related to part-time workers.) Repeals the provisions limiting eligibility of individual's seeking part-work to seeking part-time work for certain reasons. |
||
| NEW JERSEY | SB 472 (CH 24) |
ENACTED and EFFECTIVE June 30, 2008 |
|---|---|---|
| Administration | ||
| Designates the Division of Revenue in the Department of the Treasury as the State government’s centralized debt management agency. Requires a state agency unable to collect a debt owed the agency within 90 days of recording of the delinquency to transfer the delinquent account no later than the 91st day following the recording of the debt to the Division of Revenue. Requires each state agency or designee to provide an inventory for each fiscal year of the total debt owed to, and collected, and debt owed to but uncollected by the agency within 90 days of recording the delinquency. |
||
| NEW YORK | SB 8206 (CH 551) |
ENACTED and EFFECTIVE September 4, 2008 |
|---|---|---|
| Administration | ||
| Establishes new requirements concerning the confidentiality and disclosure of certain unemployment insurance information including requirements for informed consent, and provision for disclosure to law enforcement agencies, local social service districts, the Office of Vocational and Educational Services, and the Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped. | ||
| UTAH | SB 189 (CH 273) |
ENACTED and EFFECTIVE March 17, 2008 |
|---|---|---|
| Administration | ||
| Creates an independent contractor data base for use in identifying when a person holds someone out as an independent contractor or engages in the performance of work as an independent contractor not subject to an employer’s right to control the person; requires the data base to include a process to compare information in the data base to: identify a worker who may be misclassified as an independent contractor, promote employer compliance in making payments for unemployment insurance, and reduce employer intentional misclassification of a worker as an independent contractor among other things; creates an Independent Contractor Enforcement Council; provides that the data base may be used and accessed by the Department of Workforce Services and the State Tax Commission; provides that the council may study how to reduce costs resulting from misclassification of workers as independent contractors and extend outreach and education efforts regarding the nature and requirements of independent contractor status; and provides for confidentiality of information in the data base. Repeals the Act July 1, 2013. | ||
| VIRGINIA | HB 366 (CH 719) |
ENACTED and EFFECTIVE March 27, 2008 |
|---|---|---|
| Nonmonetary Eligibility | ||
| Amends the definition of misconduct to include an employee’s confirmed positive test for a non prescribed controlled substance in which the test must have been a U.S. Department of Transportation-qualified drug screen conducted in accordance with the employer’s bona fide drug policy. Amends the disqualification provision if in connection with an offer of suitable work, an individual has a confirmed positive test for a non prescribed controlled substance if the test is required as a condition of employment and is a U.S. Department of Transportation-qualified drug screen conducted in accordance with the employer’s bona fide drug policy. |
||
| VIRGINIA | SB 6019b (CH 11) |
ENACTED and EFFECTIVE July 24, 2008 |
|---|---|---|
| Extensions and Special Programs | ||
| Requires an individual to have had during his/her base period 20 weeks of full-time insured employment, or the equivalent in insured wages to be eligible to receive extended benefits. Defines "or the equivalent in insured wages" to mean more than 40 times the individual's most recent weekly benefit amount. | ||
