Posted: | February 16, 2021 09:00 AM |
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From: | Representative Mark Longietti |
To: | All House members |
Subject: | Amending Unemployment Compensation Law |
I invite you to co-sponsor legislation amending the Unemployment Compensation Law to grant eligibility to certain individuals who maintain full-time employment. COVID-19 has shown a light on certain inadequacies in our public policy. One of those inadequacies is our definition of “unemployed” with respect to the Unemployment Compensation Law. Current law states that if an individual has a full-time job, regardless of how lucrative that job is, that individual is not eligible for unemployment compensation benefits. However, it is becoming more and commonplace to see some people working multiple full-time jobs to make ends meet. If that person loses one of those jobs, they will need financial assistance. Nevertheless, because they have a second full-time job that they are working at, they are ineligible to receive benefits. My goal is to amend the definition of “unemployed” in the Unemployment Compensation Law so that we can capture those individuals who were previously denied benefits. It is important to note that the liability will fall on the employer who terminated services with the employee, and not on the employer of the active employee who is claiming benefits. Also note that a claimant who has earnings may only be eligible for partial unemployment benefits and would only receive benefits if their earnings are less than their partial benefit credit plus their weekly benefit rate, as is established by current law. Please join me in co-sponsoring this important piece of legislation. We do not want anyone to fall through the cracks in these most trying times. Thank you. |
Introduced as HB595