Retrofitting Unemployment Insurance To Cover Temporary Workers

Abstract

In 1935, Congress passed the Social Security Act and created the unemployment insurance ("UI") system. Although the state administer UI programs in different ways, the early state UI laws usually included a version of the Social Security Board's "declaration of policy": Economic insecurity due to unemployment is a serious menace to the health, morals, and welfare of the people of this state. Involuntary unemployment is therefore a subject of general interest and concern which requires appropriate action by the legislature to prevent its spread and to lighten its burden which now so often falls with crushing force upon the unemployed worker and his family. The achievement of social security requires protection against this greatest hazard of our economic life. This can be provided by encouraging employers to provide more stable employment and by the systemic accumulation of funds during periods of employment to provide benefits for periods of unemployment, thus maintaining purchasing power and limiting the serious social consequences of poor relief assistance.