With rapidly changing news, the COVID-19 pandemic has working North Carolinians on edge. These tough times remind us that no matter what we look like, where we live, or what's in our wallets, at our core we’re all just human.
Governor Cooper and his administration are showing decisive leadership by taking vital first steps to reduce the virus’ spread and provide some relief to working people.
However, the General Assembly must follow up with actions to ensure working North Carolinians who are directly and indirectly impacted continue to have the resources they need to do their jobs and support their families – leaving no worker behind.
Lawmakers should immediately pass legislation to ensure that our state’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) system will help workers and their families weather this crisis. We are asking legislators to take these immediate steps to assist workers and improve the system:
We call on General Assembly leaders and members to take these actions immediately. Putting money in workers’ pockets allows people to take care of themselves and their families, boosts consumer demand, and will help our economy weather and recover from this crisis.
Contact lawmakers now!
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1. Return to 26 maximum weeks of benefits by eliminating the sliding scale that limits duration by tying it to the state unemployment rate. At this time of crisis, it is critical that legislators increase the duration of benefits so that jobless workers don't lose benefits before they are able to return to work. The federal government has extended federally funded benefits to states to help alleviate the financial strain on state UI systems. However, the existing state duration—currently just 12 weeks—is too short at a time when workers and our economy are most in need of a boost.
2. Change the formula used to calculate benefits so individuals get the highest possible weekly benefit based on their earnings. No other state uses the current formula, which uses the last two quarters as the base period and was adopted in 2013 to deliberately reduce the amount of weekly benefits available to individuals. Now is the time to change the formula either to the highest quarterly wages (used by 23 states) or the average of the two highest quarters (17 states).
3. Increase the maximum weekly benefit amount and index it to the average weekly wage in North Carolina. Ideally, UI benefits should replace 50 percent of laid-off workers’ wages. Prior to 2013, NC had a weekly wage replacement rate of 36.5 percent, ranking 25th nationally. The current maximum, fixed benefit of $350/week puts laid-off workers at a severe disadvantage as they try to make ends meet during an unemployment crisis, and because of the way benefits have been calculated since 2013, most workers receive nowhere near the maximum.
4. Restore eligibility for UI benefits to people who lose their job for health reasons, “undue family hardship”, and spousal relocation. Lawmakers eliminated these eligibility provisions in 2013 despite them having had broad support in the business community and in previous legislative sessions. Since then, cost savings appear to be minimal, but their elimination hurts workers who are in difficult situations through no fault of their own.
