Unemployment Insurance (UI) Taxes

Issue brief
Jobs, Business & Economy 

One of the biggest impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting government shutdowns and significant limitations on many businesses has resulted in over 1 million individuals in Washington filing for unemployment sometime between March 8 – November 21, 2020. This has resulted in over $4 billion in benefit payments from the state UI Trust Fund, and depletion of the UI Trust Fund from nearly $5 billion at the end of 2019 to an estimated $1.2 billion by the end of 2020. Since the UI Trust Fund is currently funded by employer taxes, without funding from another source (e.g. federal funding, Budget Stabilization Account (BSA), etc.), employers will experience significant UI tax increases.


Bill Numbers:
HB 2965 (2019-20)

Keywords:
COVID-19/corona Layoffs Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) Pandemic Unemployment Aid (PUA) UI Trust Fund Unemployment compensation and insurance Unemployment Insurance Advisory Committee Unemployment tax


file_download
DOWNLOAD PDF