NFIB State Director Christopher Carlozzi presented in a panel discussion on state unemployment insurance legislation at a UWC conference in Salt Lake City last week. Carlozzi highlighted some of the bills that passed, failed, and are still pending regarding UI systems across the nation.

This event served as an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the crisis facing Massachusetts employers who are currently repaying nearly $5 billion in pandemic related UI debt ($2.1 billion due to a state accounting error). Massachusetts still has bills pending before the legislature that would allow expanded eligibility, increase benefits, and allow striking workers to collect unemployment. Recently, Washington and Oregon passed similar bills to allow workers on strike to collect unemployment benefits, ignoring the requirement to be available to work.

NFIB will continue working on this very important issue by advocating for the state to use rainy day money to shore up the trust fund, while reducing our outlier benefits, tightening eligibility requirements, and shortening duration.