Unemployment without benefits, By Matt Dixon, February 17, 2014, Florida Times-Union: “When lawmakers passed a $63 million ‘modernization’ of the state’s unemployment compensation system in 2011, proponents promised it would ‘improve the claims, benefits and appeals process.’ So far, the opposite has been true. Instead of streamlining the system, the changes have created a technological mess that has blocked or delayed badly needed benefits to more than 100,000 Floridians who lost their jobs through no fault of their own. The modernization project, dubbed ‘Project CONNECT,’ was passed along partisan lines, with Democrats and some legal groups in opposition. So far, many of their fears have been realized, according to a Times-Union investigation…”
Jobless aid still eluding some in Mass., By Megan Woolhouse, February 18, 2014, Boston Globe: “Devastated by the layoff last year from her job of 15 years, Heidi Thompson-Totman found new hope when she was approved for a federally funded program that would provide her with up to about a year of unemployment benefits while she retrained to work as a graphic designer. Borrowing $2,000 to cover tuition and enrolling at North Shore Community College last fall, Thompson-Totman looked forward to completing her associate’s degree and getting back to work — until her weekly benefit of about $300 stopped without explanation two months ago. Now, she and her husband, barely getting by, are planning to sell their Boxford home so they can pay college tuition for their two children. ‘We are going downhill fast,’ said Thompson-Totman, 47. ‘We can’t make our bills.’ Thompson-Totman is among many jobless Massachusetts residents enrolled in or approved for retraining programs who had benefits mistakenly cut off or delayed because of another defect in the new $46 million computer system for managing unemployment claims…”
Mixed results in U.S. study of increasing minimum wage, By Annie Lowrey, February 18, 2014, New York Times: “A popular Democratic proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, championed by President Obama, might reduce total employment by 500,000 workers by the second half of 2016. But it would also lift 900,000 families out of poverty and increase the incomes of 16.5 million low-wage workers in an average week. That is the conclusion of a detailed assessment of how raising the minimum wage would affect incomes, employment and the federal budget. The report was released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The complicated, nuanced analysis provides fuel for both supporters and critics of the policy, which would affect millions of low-wage workers and businesses — showing it might lead to fewer jobs, but also higher incomes…”
Higher minimum wage would reduce jobs but increase incomes, CBO says, By Jim Puzzanghera, February 18, 2014, Los Angeles Times: “Increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would cause the loss of about 500,000 jobs but would boost earnings for about 16.5 million low-wage workers, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday. The report said that most low-wage workers ‘would receive higher pay that would increase their family’s income, and some of those families would see their income rise above the federal poverty threshold.’ ‘But some jobs for low-wage workers would probably be eliminated, the income of most workers who became jobless would fall substantially, and the share of low-wage workers who were employed would probably fall slightly,’ the CBO said…”
