Evening star., 1940-03-19
Pay Roll Tax
Continued From First Paee.)

/ lne 1unQ Will rise to more than
$2O0OO.O 900.
Last year disbursements and bene-
! fits to the jobleSS totaled some
81, 400 900, whereas the board COL
lected from employers more than
$500 900. Under the proposed more
liberal benefit arrangements, it has
been estimated by board officials,
benefit disbursements would amount
/ to some S2,400 900.
/ On the basis of last years dis
bursements in benefits, it appears
that the District board would have
to maintain a reserve .omethine
near S5.6000O0. If ress ap-
proves the new plan. poets are
that the rate here could be reduced
TO One-half of ! per cent for some
years to come
The plan proposes a formula for
automatic adjustment of the pay
roll tax.
If the reserve amounted to four
times or more the benefit disburse-
! ments. the rate for all employers
would be l. of l per cent: if the re-
serve were less than four times but
more than three times the benefits
paid, the rate would rise to IL per
cent; II the reserve were less than
three times and more than two times
| the benefits the rate would be per
cent and If the reserve were found
to be less than two times the amount
OF benefits paid out or less than one
and one-half times the amount of
pay roll taxes paid in to the fund
the pay roll tax rate would 60 to
2.7 per cent-the maximum levy.
McCOach Stands by System.
The employer experience rating
/ plan had been approved a couple
OF weeks ago by committe of the
, D. U. c. Board consisting of Col.
David McCoach, Engineer Commits
sioner; Daniel J. Callahan. employer
representative. and John Locher,
labor representative.
In the showdown today only Col
McCoach stood by the employer eX-
perience rating system. He said he
felt substitute proposal was very
sound program. and one which he
would support. but he had doubts as
to whether congressional approval
could be obtained.
The proposals were further lib
eralized for the benefit of the iob-
less by providing that persons may
become eligible for benefit payments
if they earned only $l25 during the
previous year. whereas the present
law stipulares that an applicant
must have worked in l3 out of the
preceding So weeks. Spokesman
for the Board of Trade and other
business groups had proposed that
the wage minimum be fixed at $3.50,
but during conferences had COM
promised on 5000.
The substitute plan sets up a
| scale for minimum wages ranging
from sl25 for persons who were
paid between $31 25 to S100 during
the quarter year of their highest
earning, during the past year to
$3.50 as wage requirement tor
persons who had earned between
$3.50 and 5000 in the previous high
| quota OF earnings.
Whereas the formerly suggested
plan would have required that the
applicant earn more than $494 in
the previous high quota of earnings
to be eligible for the maximum pay
ment of $40 in weekly benefits. the
new plan would permit payment of
| the maximum benefit to those who
had earned $3.50 or more in the
past high quota of earnings.
The Commissioners ire ct e d
Corporation Counsel Elwood H. Seal
to work with Director Marshall and
his assistants in preparing a pro-
posed bill to carry out the new pro-
gram and this will be forwarded to
the Budget Bureau as soon as it is
| finished.