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House committee hears competing plans to shore up Ohio unemployment fund
Summary
At a Public Insurance and Pensions Committee hearing on House Bill 321, labor groups urged a larger, indexed taxable wage base and opposed cutting benefit weeks, while construction groups warned that some industries rely on unemployment as a seasonal safety net and urged caution on employer/employee contributions.
At a hearing of the House Public Insurance and Pensions Committee, witnesses and lawmakers discussed House Bill 321, a measure aimed at improving the solvency of Ohio's unemployment compensation (UC) trust fund. Testimony focused on proposals to raise the taxable wage base and to introduce employee contributions, and on how changes would affect low-wage and seasonal workers as well as construction employers.
Bailey Sanden, working wages fellow at Policy Matters Ohio, told the committee that Ohio's UC system is underfunded largely because employer taxes have not kept pace with the modern economy and the taxable wage base has not been adjusted for decades. "This is a scandal that should be addressed," Sanden said, noting that Ohio still taxes only the first $9,000 of wages and that if the base had been indexed it would now exceed $16,000. Sanden also…
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