Friday, February 13, 2004

Expansion in Unemployment Benefits

Article in Newsday today that

"In a reversal, the Pataki administration has agreed to grant unemployment benefits to gays and unmarried heterosexuals who quit their jobs when they relocate with partners who are hired to work in another state"

Here we go again. Businesses already pay enough for Unenp insurance in NYS -- driving many of them out of business or out of state. Now the gov insists on expanding benefits (to buy political support from certain pressure groups) when the state is in a hole.

But what really gets me is that I never realized that this benefit was given to spouses who voluntarily quit their jobs to follow their wifes/husbands move to a new job. Why are we doing this? Why should employers be required to provide a "safety net" for changes due the purely personal decisions of their employees? The employer pays twice: (1) in increasing premium costs for UI and (2) having to retrain a new person to replace the employee who leaves.

This is nonsense and this is why NYS is uncompetitive.

[For FOLLOWUP COMMENTS see The Pulse.]

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