Gov. Inslee signs bill to boost benefits for unemployed, cut unemployment tax increase
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill into law Monday that will curb an increase in unemployment taxes for businesses and increase the minimum weekly benefit for unemployed workers.
It’s the first bill the governor has signed this session.
“We know that this pandemic has caused sweeping economic hardship for workers and businesses, and this bill is a big step forward to softening those impacts,” Inslee said at a bill signing livestreamed by TVW.
The governor requested the bill, Senate Bill 5061, and it passed out of both houses of the state legislature with bipartisan support. Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines, Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, and Rep. Mike Sells, D-Everett, offered remarks remotely at the bill’s signing.
The bill will prevent $1.7 billion in automatic unemployment insurance tax increases from going into effect 2021 to 2025, according to a Senate Democrats press release, in the face of massive unemployment triggered by COVID-19.
In part, it does that by erasing the effects of $1.2 billion in benefits paid out during Inslee’s Stay Home, Stay Healthy order last spring from future tax calculations.
It also waives the solvency tax through 2025 which would otherwise automatically apply if the unemployment insurance trust fund had been depleted. And it caps part of the unemployment insurance tax so that it increases gradually over the next five years rather than spiking.
“This is going to not only address a really immediate crisis for so many of our businesses, but it will also build a good, solid bridge to the future, so that we maintain a healthy trust fund and are able to continue to pay benefits,” Keiser, the bill’s prime sponsor said Monday.
“And it isn’t just numbers we’re talking about, it’s real people: tens of thousands of real people who are unemployed and thousands of business owners who are facing — were facing — really high increases in their unemployment insurance premium taxes.”
Now, those taxes will be reduced for April, she said, which is one of the reasons early action on the bill was a priority.
The bill also includes a boost of the minimum weekly benefit for unemployed workers.
Starting with claims with an effective date of July 1, the floor for who can get more than half their wages replaced by unemployment benefits will raise from people earning 15% of the state’s average weekly wage to people earning 20%.
As a result, the minimum weekly benefit is forecast to rise from $201 to $270 in July. People who make between $21,000 and $27,800 per year will see the share of their wages that gets replaced increase.
The bill also includes some changes that will automatically go into effect the next time the governor declares an emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the federal government provides money. The changes are aimed at making the system more responsive.
Next time, employers won’t be charged unemployment insurance benefits for employees who are high-risk and unable to work from home. Businesses can request that benefits not be charged when they’re a result of closing due to an infectious disease that’s part of the emergency.
People who are high-risk or live with someone who’s high-risk will be able to get unemployment benefits after they voluntarily quit for good cause if they can’t work from home. And the one-week waiting period will be waived for people when federal funds are available.
The new law goes into effect immediately — it’s one of several efforts that lawmakers and the governor have named as priorities for quick action this session, to address impacts of COVID-19.
“As Sen. King has said and Sen. Keiser said, we know we have more to do,” Rep. Sells said Monday. “We have lots more to do. And we will be working on those within the next couple of weeks. You’ll see some more bills coming out.”
This story was originally published February 8, 2021 at 12:41 PM with the headline "Gov. Inslee signs bill to boost benefits for unemployed, cut unemployment tax increase."