At the same time federal workers and contractors are facing the prospect of layoffs, or have already been notified they are out of a job, legislation being proposed in Maryland would increase the unemployment benefit they would be entitled to.
Right now, if someone in Maryland loses their job, there’s a formula that gives them their unemployment rate.
“That formula is capped at $430, but if you think about that, $430 is below minimum wage,” Maryland State Del. Lorig Charkoudian said.
Charkoudian, who represents Montgomery County, which is home to an estimated 77,550 federal workers, would like to nearly double that weekly benefit to $750.
She’d also like to increase the allowance for dependents.
Currently, it’s $8 per dependent. House Bill 554 would increase that to $25 per dependent.
The bill, championed by Charkoudian, comes at a time when the state of Maryland faces a $3 billion shortfall.
Asked how the state could afford to boost unemployment benefits under current fiscal conditions, she said, currently, the taxable wage base in the state is $8,500.
“That amount leaves us so that the trust fund is vulnerable,” Charkoudian said. “By adjusting the taxable wage base now, we can easily afford increasing unemployment insurance benefits and having a healthy trust fund.”
The legislation would increase the taxable wage base to 20% of the average annual wage in the state, “which is about $20,000 a year — a little under that,” Charkoudian said.
“That means that we would be collecting unemployment taxes on a little bit more of the wages and that would allow the trust fund to be solvent while we are able to keep benefit levels up with inflation and the cost of living,” she added.
Kali Schumitz, vice president for external relations with the Maryland Center on Economic Policy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, told WTOP that a bump in the unemployment insurance benefits are “long overdue.”
“Our current unemployment insurance system is failing out-of-work Marylanders. Our average benefits are so low,” she said, that individuals and families receiving unemployment benefits often struggle “to maintain their basic expenses during the period that they’re out of work.”
Asked what she’s hearing from constituents about the economic climate as cuts to federal agencies have been announced just weeks into the Trump administration, Charkoudian said, “People are very worried. People are also resilient and determined.”
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