Evening star., 1940-02-24
Business Groups
Indorse Job|ess
TaxAct Changes
Perfected Experience
Rotine Is Among
Features Backed
BY DON S. WARREN.


trict Unemployment Compensation
Insurance Act, it was announced to-
day by officials of the Board OF
Trade. Approval by other groups Is
expected.
In final form, the proposals are
to be presented early next week,
probably Tuesday, to Representa-
tive McGehee, Democrat, of Mis-
sissippi, who recently introduced q
bill for liberalization Of the law for
both employees and employers, but
which was withdrawn from the
House calendar to permit further
study of some features of the draft
Oficials of the District Unem-
ployment Compensation Board are
scheduled to confer with spokesmen
for the trade groups at meeting at
IL am. Monday. Thereafter. it Is
expected, the board will take a
formal position on various features
in the pending McGehee' bill and the
proposed amendments. Chairman
Randolph of the House District
Committee has asked the District
Commissioners to make report
on the pending measure.
Want Perfected Rating Plan.
Proposals favored by spokesmen
for the trade and professional bodies
include recommendation for
adoption of a new and perfected
plan for employer experience rating.
under which the individual employer
who achieves stability in his en-
ployment may be given some meas
ure Of additional pay roll tax re-
duction as an incentive to maintain
. steady pay roll
Thirty-nine States in all now have
such a plan embodied in their job
less insurance laws and in four
States these provisions have gone
into effect. The rating plan has
been in effect for more than two
years in Wisconsin, but its opera
ton has just recently been started
in the three other States.
The present form of the McGehee
bill, it has been explained in arti-
cles in The Star, merely calls for
further study of the advisability of
employer experience rating, where
as the present District Jaw includes
a plan which is destined to go into
effect next January l. Local busi-
ness groups are urging that there
be no postponement of the use of
the rating plan but are seeking to
have the present plan modernized.
While the proposals to be offered
by the Washington trade groups
have not yet been drafted in detail
form, it is reported no objection has
been raised to the general proposals
to grant increased benefits to the
worker who becomes unemployed
and eligible for compensation in
surance. The present law permits
q maximum benefit payment of SIS
a week and this may be continued
for basic period of 16 weeks but
may be extended to as much as 265
weeks if the worker can show long
period of past employment. The
pending McGehee bill proposes to
raise the maximum weekly benefit
payment to $40 and to make the du-
ration maximum of 20 weeks.
Other means of liberalizing pay
ments to the jobless are included.
Also Would Reduce General Rate.
There also has been no objection
raised to two major features of the
McGehee bill to bring the District
into line with the new Federal policy.
which has been adopted by most all
States. These are to reduce the fiat
pay roll tax rate from 3 per cent to
2.7 per cent and to apply the tax to
but the first $1,000 of any salary of a
covered employe. The present per
cent rate is the highest in the
country.
The group of employers, which has
made an intensive study of the job
less insurance program, also was re-
ported to be convinced of the wisdom
of simplifying the mechanics of the
present law, as suggested by a num-
Der of features of the McGehee bill
One Of these is the use of table to
fix the amounts of benefits payable
under certain conditions, instead of
the present complicated formulae
The employer group. however,
plans to suggest changes in the Sec
tions dealing with benefit payments
for the partially unemployed"
Under the suggested new form for
employer experience rating, the
group will suggest provisions that
will assure the maintenance of a
benefit insurance fund of no less
than SIC, 100000 by calling for an
automatic stepup in rates should
the fund ever fall below that level.
It also suggests provisions under
which rates may be reduced gen.
orally should the fund 90 above
$12,oOo,000
Present Surplus $16,o00,000
There is now surplus of more than
$4,000, 900 in the Districts jobless in
surance fund, and this Is expected
to exceed $4,000 900 by the end Of
this year. Even under the proposed
tax rate cut and the more liberal
benefit payment plan, as outlined In
the pending McGehee bill, 1t is cal
culated the fund still would continue
to rise year after year
The proposed employer expert
ence rating system. it was said,
WUulO 1CdOCllO1A Vi tkIC pay
roll tax rate to 0.5 per cent for the
employers showing the best stabil-
ity in his pay roll, but that the
maximum rate would not go above
81 per cent, even for the employer
showing the worst employment rec
ord. The present law provision
would permit the rate for the en-
ployer with the bad record to go as
high as per cent.
Among groups represented at the
last joint meeting with the Board
of Trade, held late yesterday, were
the Theater Owners and Oper-
ators' Association. the Laundry and
Dry Cleaning Owners Association,
the Automotive Trade Association
the Graphic Arts Association, the
District Building and Loan League.
the Washington Real Estate Board,