Senator Joyce backs minimum wage increase, unemployment reform

The Massachusetts Senate passed legislation increasing the minimum wage for Massachusetts to $11 and making changes to the state’s unemployment system that will stabilize or drop unemployment insurance rates for businesses with consistent work forces, freeze those rates for four years, and maintain protections for unemployed workers.

“Studies have shown that raising the minimum wage lowers the demand for government assistance programs funded by taxpayers and will ease the burden on already strained resources for struggling working families,” said Senator Brian A. Joyce (D-Milton).

The wage would rise from its current $8 per hour to $11 per hour over the next three years with hikes occurring every July. Minimum wage workers comprise 2.8 percent of the population according to data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

The legislation also changes the experience rating tables for employers and will shift the burden of supporting unemployed workers to businesses with high turnover and lessen the impact on businesses providing a stable workforce. It will also freeze rates through 2017, providing businesses with stable accounting and averting a potential 33 percent hike.

“With these unemployment reforms, we will have a system that will not penalize employers who are hiring, training, and retaining employees and that will provide a stable rate system that will allow job providers to budget and grow more efficiently,” Joyce said.

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Posted by Canton Citizen on May 8 2014. Filed under Uncategorized. Both comments and pings are currently closed.