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General Assembly Committee Bill No. 5377
January Session, 2021
LCO No. 5407
Referred to Committee on LABOR AND PUBLIC EMPLOYEES
Introduced by:
(LAB)
AN ACT CONCERNING TH E REMOVAL OF COVID -19 RELATED
LAYOFFS FROM THE UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENS ATION
EXPERIENCE ACCOUNT.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Subsection (a) of section 31-225a of the general statutes is 1
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 2
1, 2021): 3
(a) As used in this chapter: [, "qualified employer"] 4
(1) "Qualified employer" means each employer subject to this chapter 5
whose experience record has been chargeable with benefits for at least 6
one full experience year, with the exception of employers subject to a 7
flat entry rate of contributions as provided under subsection (d) of this 8
section, employers subject to the maximum contribution rate under 9
subsection (c) of section 31-273, and reimbursing employers; 10
["contributing employer"] 11
(2) "Contributing employer" means an employer who is assigned a 12
percentage rate of contribution under the provisions of this section; 13
["reimbursing employer"] 14
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(3) "Reimbursing employer" means an employer liable for payments 15
in lieu of contributions as provided under section 31-225; ["benefit 16
charges"] 17
(4) "Benefit charges" means the amount of benefit payments charged 18
to an employer's experience account under this section; ["computation 19
date"] 20
(5) "Computation date" means June thirtieth of the year preceding the 21
tax year for which the contribution rates are computed; ["tax year"] 22
(6) "Tax year" means the calendar year immediately following the 23
computation date; ["experience year"] 24
(7) "Experience year" means the twelve consecutive months ending 25
on June thirtieth; [and "experience period"] 26
(8) "Experience period" means the three consecutive experience years 27
ending on the computation date, except that (A) if the employer's 28
account has been chargeable with benefits for less than three years, the 29
experience period shall consist of the greater of one or two consecutive 30
experience years ending on the computation date, and (B) to the extent 31
allowed by federal law and as necessary to respond to the spread of 32
COVID-19, for any taxable year commencing on or after January 1, 2022, 33
the experience period shall be calculated without regard to benefit 34
charges and taxable wages for the experience years ending June 30, 2020, 35
and June 30, 2021, when applicable; and 36
(9) "COVID-19" means the respiratory disease designated by the 37
World Health Organization on February 11, 2020, as coronavirus 2019, 38
and any related mutation thereof recognized by the World Health 39
Organization as a communicable respiratory disease. 40
Sec. 2. Subsection (d) of section 31-225a of the general statutes is 41
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 42
1, 2021): 43
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(d) The standard rate of contributions shall be five and four-tenths 44
per cent. Each employer who has not been chargeable with benefits, for 45
a sufficient period of time to have his or her rate computed under this 46
section shall pay contributions at a rate that is the higher of (1) one per 47
cent, or (2) the state's five-year benefit cost rate. For purposes of this 48
subsection, the state's five-year benefit cost rate shall be computed 49
annually on or before June thirtieth and shall be derived by dividing the 50
total dollar amount of benefits paid to claimants under this chapter 51
during the five consecutive calendar years immediately preceding the 52
computation date by the five-year payroll during the same period, 53
except that, to the extent allowed by federal law and as necessary to 54
respond to the spread of COVID-19, for any taxable year commencing 55
on or after January 1, 2022, the state's five-year benefit cost rate shall be 56
calculated without regard to benefit payments and taxable wages for 57
calendar years 2020 and 2021, when applicable. If the resulting quotient 58
is not an exact multiple of one-tenth of one per cent, the five-year benefit 59
cost rate shall be the next higher such multiple. 60
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 October 1, 2021 31-225a(a)
Sec. 2 October 1, 2021 31-225a(d)
Statement of Purpose:
To remove COVID -19 related layoffs from the unemployment
experience account.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not
underlined.]
Co-Sponsors: REP. CONLEY, 40th Dist.; SEN. OSTEN, 19th Dist.
REP. FISHBEIN, 90th Dist.; REP. RYAN, 139th Dist.
H.B. 5377