Evening star., 1938-11-29
Unemployment Pay
Prospects in Future
Hailed byWagenet


Social Security OfficioI
Welcomes Stotes'
Expansion
r. Gordon Wagenet, director of
the Bureau Of Unemployment Com
pensation of the Social Security
Board, spoke last night on Job In
surance Looks Toward q New Year"
in the National Radio Forum, ar
ranged by The Star and broadcast
over a Nation wide network of the
National Broadcasting Co. The text
of his address follows:
Within the next so days unem-
ployment benefits-weekly cash pay
ments to workers who lose their jobs
through no fault of their own-will
begin to be paid in IT more States
and Territories. With 20 States and
Territories already paying benefits,
that means that in few weeks
from now this system is going to be
in full operation in all the States
but two. And in those last two
Illinois and Montana-benefits be-
come payable next July. So in the
new year of 1899, we can look for
ward to seeing the job insurance
program established by the Social
Security Act become working real
ity throughout the entire United
States.
Some twenty-seven and one-half
million wage earnerS are employed
In industrial and commercial jobs
covered by these State unemploy-
ment compensation laws With this
protection, all these millions of men
and women will be able to bridge
the gap between jobs. That's why
unemployment compensation is i'm
portant to wage earners in the
States that are going to begin paying
benefits this December or January.
That's why it's important to wage
earners in the 20 Jurisdictions where
benefits are already being paid. And
that's why am going to talk to you
tonight about the workings of this
Nationwide prOgram-about who
gets benefits and why and when;
and about other job-insurance facts
that are of direct concern to every
wage Garner and to every citizen.
Let me start with what has been
done since the first of this year.
when benefit payments really began
to get under way: Since last Janu-
ary some three and one-half million
workers have drawn benefits under
the State unemployment compensa-
ton laws of 20 States. This very
week nearly a million men and
women, who have been laid off or
lost their jobs during the past few
months, will receive some money to
help keep themselves and their
families going while they look for
other work.
Amount Of Checks.
The majority of these people will
receive a weekly check for about $40
or $1l, if they are totally unem-
ployed; for about IS, If they are
partially" employed. These amounts
represent the average size of in
dividual benefit payments now
being made in the States. The
actual benefit each worker receives
comes to about half what he usually
earns for full weeks work, up to
maximum set by the State law.
In most States this maximum is
$l5. For partial unemployment the
benefit, OF course, Is less; but it is
figured IN relation to the individuals
actual earnings for the week, so that
these earnings plus his benefit will
equal at least half his regular pay.
Now, $40 or $11 or even SIS a
week may not seem like much to a
man who has been earning twice
that amount-especially to a man
with a family. But it will at least
keep the wolf from the door while
he is looking for Job. Ten dollars
means one thing If you already have
your weeks livelihood: but it means
a lot more, when it's $40 or nothing
at all to put In the family purse
that week.
And the certainty of this much
coming in between jobs means still
more when you realize that most
commercial and industrial workers
IN this country do not earn on the
average much more than $1,000 a
year, and that q lot of them earn
quite bit less. On these earnings
many men must support a wife and
possibly several children. Not much
margin for savings-is there? And
when some pay day a man finds in
his pay envelope, along with his
wages, the pink slip that means
dismissal or lay-off for several
weeks, the little he's been able to
put aside for the inevitable rainy
day Is so small that it won't last
through many payless pay days. To
many people in this country the
$40 or $11 benefit check has already
meant the difference between priva-
tion-even disaster-and keeping
their heads above water until they
land safely back at work.
Relief Alternative.
OF course, if we hadn't had un-
employment compensation, these
people and their families probably
wouldn't have starved or been put
out in the street. We don't let that
happen in the United States-not
very often anyway. We would have
taken care of them somehow-by
w. P. A., or public relief, or private
charity. But that would have cost
us something; and the point I want
to make is that it would have cost
us far too much. We would have
had to pay, in dollars and cents, at
least as much and maybe far more
than We are now paying for unem-
ployment compensation. And we
would also have had to pay in other
less tangible and far more costly
ways-in the undermining of morale,
In loss of self-respect and independ-
ence, in what 1t is that happens to
people when they finally have to