Unemployment

The Coalition on Human Needs supports strong state UI programs that reflect the needs of todays working families. Congress must require states to provide up to 26 weeks of regular UI benefits, which, in an economy of rising unemployment durations, would provide jobseekers, especially lower-wage jobseekers, with a more realistic window of time to find suitable new employment. Further, in recognition of the prominent role of part-time work in the U.S. economy, especially in large service providing industries, Congress must ensure that part-time workers are eligible in all states. CHN supports continued eligibility of gig and self-employed workers for unemployment benefits, as was provided through Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. CNH supports federal standards that require states to increase UI benefit amounts to meet the needs of workers, particularly the high percentage of Black, brown and indigenous workers who are underpaid and relied on their full wages to afford basic necessities. CHN supports an adequately funded UI system, to ensure it can continue meeting its goals of stabilizing the economy and households during difficult times without harsh benefits cuts that harm working families. As a first step, Congress must raise the portion of annual earnings subject to federal UI taxation, known as the taxable wage base, which at $7,000, is highly regressive. Recent policy reform proposals have put forward levels ranging from one-third to one-half of the Social Security taxable wage base. Notably, this would cause state wage bases to rise automatically and dramatically increase the health of state trust funds, meaning that they would be less likely to need massive federal loans during high-use periods such as recessions. CHN supports fair access to state UI programs, supported by full federal funding of program administration, and strong enforcement of applicable federal standards, to ensure state claims-filing processes can be easily understood and accomplished by most workers, including workers with literacy challenges, workers with limited English proficiency, older workers, workers without access to the internet, and disabled workers. CHN supports federal investments in layoff aversion strategies like short-time compensation, also known as work sharing, which lets firms reduce work hours as an alternative to layoffs during temporary downturns. UI benefits would then supplement worker earnings until conditions recover. 72 CHN supports a revitalized Employment Service, which provides cost-effective jobsearch assistance to jobseekers, including UI claimants, and greater investment in Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments, or RESEA, for UI claimants, especially those identified as the most likely to become long-term unemployed. CHN supports Congressional authorization of a Job Seekers Allowance, which would be a modest, means-tested benefit to workers who are ineligible for UI, but who are looking for work and need financial assistance in order to be able to meaningfully search for work and support themselves and their families while doing so. CHN supports reforms to the Extended Benefits (EB) program, the permanent federal-state program that extends the benefit duration of claimants who exhaust their regular state benefits during recessions. To ensure EB ramps up swiftly during difficult times, state activation criteria, also known as triggers, should be based on state unemployment rates, rather than insured unemployment rates, which are stricter; and payments should be fully federally funded, as state trust fund reserves usually are low or depleted during recessions. The Coalition on Human Needs opposes proposals that would grant states waivers of important federal UI requirements, for such purposes as diverting scarce UI trust fund dollars to conduct demonstration projects that allege to facilitate the reemployment of a states UI recipients but that condition UI receipt on factors unrelated to substantive eligibility; or to defy federal UI administrative standards, first established to ensure the prompt payment of benefits to eligible jobless workers. Current federal UI law grants states broad authority to define UI eligibility rules and disqualification penalties. In addition, many states demonstrated during the Great Recession that they have the capability and resources under existing federal UI law to employ strategies that help facilitate reemployment. CHN opposes any proposals that draw UI eligibility distinctions based on individual earnings. Involuntary job loss and long-term unemployment impose a wide range of material and personal hardships. The lowest wage workers shouldnt be ineligible because of too-small earnings, and it would be incorrect to presume that even the highest-wage earners are immune to these outcomes.