19 July 2018 Connecticut legislation that would have negatively affected employers failed to pass before the end of the 2018 session The Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA) reports that several bills that would have negatively affected Connecticut employers failed to pass before the end of the 2018 legislative session, including provisions that would have affected unemployment insurance, paid family and medical insurance, paid sick leave and minimum wage. Bills that would have established an administrative unemployment surcharge and increased unemployment trust fund solvency failed to be considered — Promoted by the state Department of Labor, SB 6 would have, effective the first quarter 2019, established an employer administrative surcharge equal to 0.05% of unemployment taxable wages. SB 6 failed to be reported out of Senate committee. When SB 6 failed to gain traction in the legislature, the provision was added to the state Republicans' final budget proposal, but was stripped out of the FY 2019 compromise budget bill (SB 543) that was signed into law by the governor on May 15, 2018. — Another bill (HB 5480) would have made changes to the state unemployment benefits law to increase the solvency of the state's unemployment trust fund. HB 5480, supported by the CBIA, failed to be considered in the House before the end of the session. — Starting with any benefit year commencing on or after the first Sunday in October 2018, HB 5480 would have increased non-construction workers'?minimum weekly unemployment benefit from $15 to $50. Because current law generally requires claimants to have earned at least 40 times their weekly benefit during their base period to qualify for benefits, increasing the minimum benefit would also have increased what these claimants must earn over the course of their base period to qualify for the minimum benefit (CGS Section 31-235). Thus, to qualify for the bill's $50 minimum weekly benefit, claimants would have been required to earn at least $2,000 ($50 x 40) during the base period, instead of the $600 required by current law. Current law caps the maximum unemployment benefit allowed for any unemployment claimant at 60% of the average wage paid to the manufacturing workers. The labor commissioner adjusts the cap on the first Sunday of each October but cannot increase it more than $18 each year. HB 5480 would have further prohibited the commissioner from increasing the cap in any benefit year if the balance in the unemployment trust fund results in an average high cost multiple (AHCM) of less than 0.7, as calculated by law. The AHCM is a US Department of Labor formula that expresses how many years a state unemployment trust fund can pay out benefits at a recession-level payout rate. If the AHCM is 1.0, the fund should be able to cover one year of benefits in a recession. SB 1 and HB 5387 would have established a paid family and medical leave program, to be administered by the state Department of Labor and funded starting July 1, 2020 through employee contributions withheld by their employers. This would have been a program similar to the state disability plans administered by several other states (i.e., California, New Jersey, and Rhode Islands). SB 1 failed to be reported out of Senate committee and HB 5387 failed to be considered in the House before the end of the session. The CBIA supported other legislation?(HB 5584),?which would have, effective October 1, 2018, provided a tax credit for employers that have paid family and medical leave benefit programs. HB 5584 failed to be considered in the House before the end of the session. Effective January 1, 2012, Connecticut was the first state to require employers of 50 or more employees to provide paid sick leave to certain service workers. HB 5044 would have, effective October 1, 2018, expanded the state's paid sick leave law to require employers will 20 or more employees to provide paid sick leave to all employees, not just service workers. Employers of less than 20 employees would have been required to provide unpaid sick leave. The bill also would have eliminated the exemption for manufacturing companies and certain nonprofit employers. See Ernst & Young LLP's publication on other states that have enacted paid family leave laws. HB 5388 would have increased the state's minimum hourly wage from the current $10.10 to $12.00 on January 1, 2019; $13.50 on January 1, 2020; and $15.00 on January 1, 2021. Beginning in 2023, minimum wage increases would have been indexed to annual increases in the consumer price index (CPI). HB 5388 failed to be considered in the House before the end of the session.
Document ID: 2018-1448 | |||||||||
