job insurance

Employers may get break on jobless insurance increase

(BOSTON HERALD) - The Patrick administration is hoping to soften the blow of a planned unemployment-insurance rate increase, in exchange for boosting employers’ contributions to a nearly bankrupt health-care fund.

The state’s unemployment insurance system, which is almost broke due the high number of jobless people seeking claims, is scheduled to automatically jack up rates by 40 percent or more in January to help replenish its depleted coffers.

But the administration, which has been consulting with business groups, is eyeing a lower 20 percent increase in employer rates as a way to ease the burden on businesses during the recession, according to a memo sent to business groups by Suzanne Bump, Patrick’s secretary of labor and workforce development.

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