Workforce Issues & Employee Benefits
Employers in Many States Face Tax Hike To Help Repay Federal UI Loans
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Employers in 28 states owing $38.2 billion to the federal government for unemployment insurance benefits incurred an increase in their Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) tax this week. Revenues from the tax increase will go directly toward repaying the balance of the loans. A total of 35 states opted to borrow federal dollars because their unemployment insurance trust fund reserves were insufficient to weather the recent economic downturn. The deep and prolonged Great Recession, current sluggish recovery, and continued high rate of long-term unemployment have further reduced revenues and increased outgoing unemployment insurance payments.
Thankful for Three Key Social Insurance Programs That Kept Nearly 24.2 Million Americans Out of Poverty in 2010
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This Thanksgiving, nearly 24.2 million Americans, will undoubtedly be thankful for three critical social insurance programs that helped keep them out of poverty in 2010: Social Security, unemployment insurance and workers' compensation.
Views from the Stakeholders of OASDI: Employers, Workers, and Vulnerable Communities
How should we evaluate proposed changes to Social Security? Whose perspective should we take when judging the strengths and weaknesses of social insurance policy? In “Views from the Stakeholders of OASDI: Employers, Workers, and Vulnerable Communities,” Session III of NASI’s 23rd annual policy research conference, four groups were represented as stakeholders of Social Security: employers, workers, children and families, and persons of color.
Read More…Shoring Up the Unemployment Insurance System
The unemployment insurance (UI) system has provided an essential source of support for American workers and their families. Yet the system is not without its flaws, as panelists highlighted at the “Strengthening UI” session of NASI’s 23rd annual conference. The three speakers addressed a broad range of areas where the UI system could be improved and offered proposals that ranged from the very specific to new ways of conceiving of employment arrangements.
Read More…Business and Retirement Income – What Role in the Future?
I have been very pleased to spend the last few days in Washington, DC and to participate in several meetings about retirement security. On Wednesday, June 17, I joined a group at the National Academy of Social Insurance at “The Quest for Adequate Retirement Income” a symposium focusing on current issues in the retirement system.
On Thursday [July 18th], I had the opportunity to meet with a number of plan sponsors who were discussing challenges in the retirement income system from their perspective. These large organizations were interested in providing retirement security to their employees, and frustrated at what often seems to be a stream of endless roadblocks.
