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Committee approves amendment raising top weekly UI benefit but votes against advancing bill
Summary
A House labor committee approved an amendment to House Bill 542 that would raise New Hampshire's maximum weekly unemployment benefit to $535, but the committee ultimately voted not to advance the bill, sending it on an 'inexpedient to legislate' recommendation.
A House Labor, Industrial and Rehabilitative Services Committee on Thursday approved an amendment to House Bill 542 that would increase the state's maximum weekly unemployment benefit to $535, but later voted not to advance the bill.
The amendment, introduced by Representative Mark McKenzie (Hillsborough District 40), reduces the number of new benefit tiers proposed in the original bill and raises the top of the benefit schedule from $427 to $535 a week for workers with higher base-period earnings.
The change, McKenzie said in committee testimony, "takes back 6 of the 12 steps that were proposed" in the original draft and is designed to "strike a balance" between improving wage replacement for higher earners and preserving the solvency of the unemployment trust fund. He told committee members the amendment keeps the system from having to borrow from the federal government even under modeled recessionary stress scenarios.
Richard Lavers, deputy commissioner at New Hampshire Employment Security, presented the department's updated analysis for the amendment. He said the amended schedule would preserve the same wage-replacement ratio at the new top tier and estimated that, under current economic conditions, the amendment would not immediately affect the automatic employer tax rate reductions linked to the trust fund balance. Lavers told the committee the department's stress tests showed the fund would not need to borrow under a modeled major recession, but that in recessionary scenarios the amendment could cause employers to lose a forecasted fund balance reduction earlier than without the change and could increase employer tax collections in a quarter by roughly $22.9 million.
"This proposal's amended maximum weekly benefit would be $535 a week for someone that had earned at least $52,000 in their 4-quarter base period compared to the current maximum of $427," Lavers said, adding that the department updated its projections to show how the change would affect both filers and employer tax triggers.
Committee members questioned how the change would affect duration of claims and employer rates. Lavers replied that the proposal increases benefit amounts but does not change the number of weeks beneficiaries may claim; he noted New Hampshire's average duration is about 12 weeks and that the state's exhaustion rate is low compared with other states.
Despite the committee's approval of the amendment, the panel later rejected a motion to recommend the bill "ought to pass as amended." The final committee action was an 11-9 vote for "inexpedient to legislate," effectively recommending the measure not move forward from the committee.
Why this matters: The amendment was aimed at narrowing a long-standing gap in wage replacement between lower- and higher-paid workers who file unemployment claims. Supporters said the increase would better stabilize families after layoffs; opponents raised concerns about the potential downstream effect on employer tax rates in stress scenarios.
Votes at a glance: Amendment (0252h) — passed on committee roll call (19 yes, 1 no). Motion to recommend "ought to pass as amended" — failed (9 yes, 11 no). Motion to recommend "inexpedient to legislate" (ITL) — passed (11 yes, 9 no).
