Senate Advances Unemployment Compensation Reform Bill

Source: PA Chamber of Business and Industry

Last week, the Pennsylvania Senate passed an amended version of House Bill 274, a bipartisan package of unemployment compensation reforms. The bill includes a number of PA Chamber priorities: it targets “ghosting” in the hiring process, fixes a technical issue that would have raised system costs, strengthens requirements on claimants recently deemed ineligible, and adds new measures to help employers avoid tax increases when former workers qualify for benefits. The bill also includes legislation the PA Chamber had previously opposed to delay implementation of a new method for determining benefits levels that the PA Chamber had first proposed years ago,

“This bill takes several important steps to improve the unemployment compensation system,” PA Chamber Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Alex Halper said in a statement.

“At the same time, we are concerned about the delay of the updated benefit formula set for 2026, which was designed to make benefits fairer and ease long-term pressure on the UC Trust Fund. As discussions continue, we urge lawmakers to focus on the system’s financial stability, which remains below federal solvency benchmarks even as Pennsylvania employers pay among the highest UC taxes in the country.”

“We appreciate the work of Senate Republicans, and especially Labor and Industry Committee Chair Devlin Robinson, to move this bipartisan unemployment compensation legislation that includes several PA Chamber priorities to improve how the system is run.”

 

Background

H.B. 274 incorporates legislation introduced by Senator Michelle Brooks (R-Crawford) to address “ghosting,” in which claimants skip interviews or ignore job offers to keep receiving benefits. Employers have raised concerns about this for years, and the bill codifies that claimants who discourage their own employment are not eligible for benefits.

 

H.B. 274 includes several other provisions supported by the PA Chamber:

• Strengthens requirements for individuals who were recently deemed ineligible to show a clear tie to the workforce before reapplying for benefits.
• Corrects a technical error that would have expanded eligibility and increased system costs.
• Adds new situations where employers are automatically granted relief from charges, helping them avoid UC tax hikes.