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History
- Referred to labor
- Referred to labor
Full text
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Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S5020
Title of bill
An act to amend the labor law, in relation to requiring the calculation of unemployment benefits to be determined based on the period of employment rather than the period during which salary was paid
Summary of provisions
Section One of the bill amends paragraph (b) of subdivision 2 of section 597 of the Labor law, as amended by chapter 413 of the laws of 2003 to state the unemployment benefits are to be determined by the Commissioner of Labor, and shall be based upon either the period the claimant has worked for the employer and or the period for which the claimant was paid by the employer, whichever is favorable to the applicant.
Existing law
New bill
Justification
Under existing laws and regulations, one of the criteria by which the New York State Department of Labor (DOL) determines eligibility for Unemployment Insurance (UI) excludes certain individuals who should be eligible and rewards employers who are tardy in issuing paychecks.
To meet the criterion in question, a UI applicant's total wages in the "alternate base period," or the last four calendar quarters prior to the UI application, must be at least one and one-half times the highest quarter wages -- up to $8,910. For example, if an individual works nine out of the last 12 months and earns $8,910 in one quarter, she has to have made at least half of that, or $4,455, throughout her other two quarters of employment to be eligible for UI.
Currently, DOL only considers the quarters in which applicants get paid, not when they actually work. This policy incentivizes late payments from employers, as earned income clustered in one quarter can disqualify former employees from UI, thereby reducing employers' UI liability. Moreover, employers and their payroll companies make mistakes that similarly result in clustered payments. In either case, applicants should be held harmless.
This legislation directs DOL to determine eligibility based on either the periods in which applicants have worked or when they get paid, whichever is more favorable to the applicants.
Legislative history
New Bill
Fiscal implications
To be determined
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.