House Bill No. 5377
Public Act No. 21-5
AN ACT CONCERNING TH E REMOVAL OF COVID -19 RELATED
LAYOFFS FROM THE UNE MPLOYMENT COMPENSATI ON
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
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October
1, 2021):
(a) As used in this chapter: [, "qualified employer"]
(1) "Qualified employer" means each employer subject to this chapter
whose experience record has been chargeable with benefits for at least
one full experience year, with the exception of employers subject to a
flat entry rate of contributions as provided under subsection (d) of this
section, employers subject to the maximum contribution rate under
subsection (c) of section 31-273, and reimbursing employers;
["contributing employer"]
(2) "Contributing employer" means an employer who is assigned a
percentage rate of contribution under the provisions of this section;
["reimbursing employer"]
(3) "Reimbursing employer" means an employer liable for payments House Bill No. 5377
Public Act No. 21-5 2 of 3
in lieu of contributions as provided under section 31-225; ["benefit
charges"]
(4) "Benefit charges" means the amount of benefit payments charged
to an employer's experience account under this section; ["computation
date"]
(5) "Computation date" means June thirtieth of the year preceding the
tax year for which the contribution rates are computed; ["tax year"]
(6) "Tax year" means the calendar year immediately following the
computation date; ["experience year"]
(7) "Experience year" means the twelve consecutive months ending
on June thirtieth; [and "experience period"]
(8) "Experience period" means the three consecutive experience years
ending on the computation date, except that (A) if the employer's
account has been chargeable with benefits for less than three years, the
experience period shall consist of the greater of one or two consecutive
experience years ending on the computation date, [.] and (B) to the
extent allowed by federal law and as necessary to respond to the spread
of COVID-19, for any taxable year commencing on or after January 1,
2022, the experience period shall be calculated without regard to benefit
charges and taxable wages for the experience years ending June 30, 2020,
and June 30, 2021, when applicable; and
(9) "COVID-19" means the respiratory disease designated by the
World Health Organization on February 11, 2020, as coronavirus 2019,
and any related mutation thereof recognized by the World Health
Organization as a communicable respiratory disease.
Sec. 2. Subsection (d) of section 31-225a of the general statutes is
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October
1, 2021): House Bill No. 5377
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(d) The standard rate of contributions shall be five and four-tenths
per cent. Each employer who has not been chargeable with benefits, for
a sufficient period of time to have his or her rate computed under this
section shall pay contributions at a rate that is the higher of (1) one per
cent, or (2) the state's five-year benefit cost rate. For purposes of this
subsection, the state's five-year benefit cost rate shall be computed
annually on or before June thirtieth and shall be derived by dividing the
total dollar amount of benefits paid to claimants under this chapter
during the five consecutive calendar years immediately preceding the
computation date by the five-year payroll during the same period,
except that, to the extent allowed by federal law and as necessary to
respond to the spread of COVID-19, for any taxable year commencing
on or after January 1, 2022, the state's five-year benefit cost rate shall be
calculated without regard to benefit payments and taxable wages for
calendar years 2020 and 2021, when applicable. If the resulting quotient
is not an exact multiple of one-tenth of one per cent, the five-year benefit
cost rate shall be the next higher such multiple.
Approved May 3, 2021