The Daily Alaska empire., 1937-07-12
UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION

Much is heard these days about unemployment compensation, the result of new law which i now in effect in Alaska after passage by the las Legislature The Unemployment Compensation Com mission has held its preliminary meetings and th set-up for the Territory has been arranged in con junction with the Federal Social Security law. II view of the fact that both employers and employee are now paying toward benefits in the future, som of the salient features and requirements of the pro- gram should be of interest Following some of tht principal features as outlined by the Commission:
 It should be kept in mind that Alaskas law fits in with the national social security law and that if employers in Alaska made no unemployment compensation contributions to the Territory, for in protecting wage earners in time of business stress unemploy- ment, they would be required to pay such contributions to the Federal government for the use of age-earners in the States, none of which would be used in Alaska.
 If you run any business, excluding small number exempted by Federal and Territorial laws, and employ as many as eight persons during any twenty weeks in the year you are subject to the law and required to pay per- centage of your payros to the Alaska Unem- poyment Compensation Commission. Those twenty weeks need not together. They may cover many periods in a calendar year. Any employer having less than eight em- poyees may voluntarily within the pro- visions of the law by filing application with the commission
 This year all employers of eight more will be required to make a contribution of Is percent; next year the rate will be ln- creased to 2.7 percent.
 After January l, 1922, the Unemployment Compensation Commission will have record which to base the percentage of contribu- ton to be made by industries in each class. In this way, particular class may obtain Yhcta a rpdn he contributions Statistics will be carefully kept for each employer during the three years pre- ceding 1922 and the Commission will be able to determine readily at any time the amount of contributions paid by employers in each classification and the total paid to idle wage earners in each class.
 All collections will be set apart exclusively for the payment of unemployment compen- saton to wage-earners in Alaska None will be used in any state and none will be paid for overhead any expenses of the Unem- ployment Compensation Commission. The law says all contributions must be held in a trust fund for the particular purpose of paying un- employment compensation in Alaska
 Except in a few instances employers have shown desire to cooperate with the Commis- sion in putting the law into effect in Alaska. The wage-earner is not the only beneficiary of the program Employers will find it highly beneficial to them when the Commission be- gins the payment of compensation
 If you operate industrial establishment that has slack business during any period of the year and you forced to reduce your payros in that season, the employment ice of the Territory, working in cooperation with the unemployment compensation com mission will seek jobs for your idle workers in keeping with their experience and qualifca- tions. If business conditions such that jobs cannot be found, each idle worker whose idleness results from no fault of his own, will be paid unemployment compensation for not exceeding 20 weeks and the rate of payment will be based on the employees weekly ings during the time the employer and ployee are contributing to the fund but the total will not be greater than SIS week. In most cases this should keep the idle worker in funds for life's necessities until the time the