Lawmakers in the US state of Florida have approved a bill that will impose deep cuts in unemployment benefits in a state with one of the highest jobless rates in the country. The state House and Senate approved the measure last Friday night, sending the bill to Republican Governor Rick Scott to sign into law.
The Florida move is the latest and most sweeping in a series of attacks on unemployment benefits by state governments. The legislation will cut the maximum length of eligibility for state benefits from 26 to 23 weeks. It also imposes a sliding scale for benefits, which will drop to as low as 12 weeks if the official jobless rate declines to 5 percent or lower. Florida’s official unemployment rates currently stands at 11.5 percent.
In March, Michigan—which has suffered more than 28 months of double-digit unemployment—became the first state to shorten jobless benefits, cutting the period from 26 to 20 weeks, effective January 2012. The Arkansas state legislature recently cut jobless benefits from 26 to 25 weeks. It hopes to save $60 million to $75 million with this change as well as through new eligibility requirements for workers seeking unemployment.
This growing assault on the jobless comes as the latest jobs report saw the national unemployment rate rise from 8.8 percent in March to 9.0 percent in April. If “discouraged” workers are taken into account, the rate rises to 15.9 percent. More than 40 percent of the unemployed have been out of work for six months or more. In April, the US government slashed an estimated 24,000 jobs, and local governments cut 14,000 workers from their payrolls.
While Republican legislators have been the most aggressive in slashing jobless benefits, the attack on the unemployed is bipartisan. The Obama administration has rejected any jobs or public works program, exploiting high unemployment in an effort to force workers to accept cuts in wages and benefits throughout the economy. The White House is currently engaged in horse-trading with congressional Republicans over a deficit reduction plan that will slash from $4 trillion to $6 trillion over the next 10-12 years from Medicare, Medicaid and other social programs that benefit workers.
As a result of these policies, millions of Americans find themselves without the most basic assistance, and millions more are on the verge of destitution. The cuts approved by the Florida legislature are particularly cruel. The state already has some of the lowest benefits in the country, with a minimum weekly payment of $32 and a maximum of only $275. More than 535,000 Floridians were collecting jobless benefits as of late March.
In addition to reducing the number of weeks workers can collect, the new Florida bill will also make it easier for businesses to claim that employees were fired for cause, thereby preventing workers from receiving any benefits at all. As unemployment tax rates for businesses are mainly tied to the number of former workers collecting compensation, corporate taxes will fall along with the jobless benefits.
via www.wsws.org
Comments