June 11, 2009
Contact: Sharon Parks or Judy Putnam at (517) 487-5436
Michigan Grappling with Unemployment Insurance Modernization
Strengthen Crucial Part of Safety Net, Group Urges
LANSING – As Michigan’s unemployment rate continues to rise, the state’s unemployment insurance (UI) system fails many hard-working families, a new report by the Michigan League for Human Services concludes.
Michigan Needs to Modernize its Unemployment Insurance System, released today, states that less than half of Michigan’s unemployed workers currently receive unemployment benefits. Many of those not receiving benefits are part-time employees, low-income workers, and workers permanently displaced due to the mass closures of dying industrial operations.
The report finds:
§ Michigan’s full-time working requirements for UI disproportionately burden female workers in the state;
§ A minimum-wage worker in Michigan must work nearly four times as many hours to gain UI monetary eligibility as a higher-wage worker; and
§ During prosperous economic times Michigan employers were allowed to cut a percentage of their UI trust fund tax. Now, Michigan is one of out 11 states with an insolvent UI trust fund.
“It’s alarming that unemployed workers who need the most help are being denied eligibility to unemployment insurance,” said MLHS President and CEO Sharon Parks. “Michigan’s unemployment insurance system hasn’t kept up with the changing workforce, and now our workers and families are being forced to pay the price.”
With a 12.9 percent unemployment rate, Michigan’s workers and families need a strong safety net. The Michigan League for Human Services supports the modernization of the state’s unemployment insurance system.
- more -
1115 SOUTH PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE • SUITE 202 • LANSING, MICHIGAN 48912
517.487.5436/PHONE • 517.371.4546/FAX • WWW.MILHS.ORG
A UNITED WAY AGENCY
The League’s report urges lawmakers to pass two UI modernization bills that have already passed the House, but have yet to be taken up in the Senate. The bills would expand UI eligibility to unemployed part-time workers, and provide benefits for unemployed workers in training.
Michigan risks leaving almost $140 million of federal money on the table if these bills are not passed.
“It is essential that Michigan receive these dollars from the federal government to support hard-working individuals and families who are trying to hold their heads above water. In today’s battered economy, Michigan’s workers need a safety net they can depend on, and that includes a supportive unemployment insurance system,” Parks said.
The League suggests seven modernizations that include and go beyond the current UI bills. These suggestions emphasize expanding eligibility, increasing benefits, and lengthening benefit duration.
Michigan must use federal stimulus dollars to catalyze the modernization of its UI system. Without these modernizations, Michigan’s hard-working people will be left to fend for themselves without a stable employment safety net.
The attached report is also available at the League’s Web site, www.milhs.org.
The Michigan League for Human Services is a statewide, nonprofit and nonpartisan advocacy group for low-income residents. It has more than 1,500 members from business, labor, faith-based organizations, and human service professions as well as concerned citizens.
# # #
PKc:Press Release UI.doc/ls