CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Mothers and fathers working part-time jobs to keep their families afloat have become a staple of the work force. Now, unemployment benefits are catching up with that trend.
Nationally, about one in five workers is part-time – one in four in New Hampshire, according to a 2003 study. And that has states thinking differently about unemployment laws.
Maine and New Hampshire, for example, are looking at giving benefits to part-time workers who are laid off. In Vermont, however, part-timers have been allowed to collect benefits since 1976.
While some of these workers are students, many are parents of young children or adults caring for an elderly or disabled family member. In most cases, they’re women.
“The work force has changed dramatically,” said Laura Fortman, Commissioner of Maine’s Department of Labor. “We needed to recognize that people were struggling to care for their families.”
Maine has temporarily allowed those with a history of part-time work or those who can’t take full-time work due to family responsibilities to collect unemployment benefits as long as they seek part-time work. Until 2004, all workers had to seek full-time work if they wanted to collect benefits after being laid off. That remains the rule in most states, including New Hampshire.
In Vermont, a state Supreme Court ruling required providing benefits to part-timers. “It’s built into our system,” said Tom Douse, deputy commissioner of the Department of Employment and Training. He could not provide a breakdown of how many part-time workers are part of that system.
In Maine, 886 people of the 32,700 who filed claims last year took advantage of rules that allowed part-timers to qualify, Fortman said. The state is now considering extending it permanently.
That proposal received preliminary approval in the Maine House in March and awaits further action.
In New Hampshire, the issue of extending unemployment benefits to part-time workers has long been controversial.
Henry Veilleux, a lobbyist for the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association, said that industry stands to suffer if unemployment benefits are extended to part-time workers. “We do tend to hire more part-time folks,” he said.
Since part of what an employer pays into the unemployment insurance pool is based on their history of claims, hotels and restaurants could see their unemployment insurance rates go up, he said.
But the narrow exception under consideration in New Hampshire shouldn’t have a major impact on businesses, he said.
Richard Brothers, New Hampshire’s new Commissioner of Employment Security, calls the exception “a working parents bill.”
It would allow workers to collect unemployment benefits if they can only work part-time because they are the only available adults to care for children under age 16.
The expansion of benefits is expected to cover about 230 people per year at a cost of about $500,000, most of which employers already pay into the system. About $18,000 would come from state revenues. The Employment Security department also expects to hire an additional person to process the new claims and collect data on part-time workers, adding roughly $42,000 in cost.
In Maine, the cost to expand benefits to the 886 workers ran about $1.8 million, Fortman said.
New Hampshire Rep. Franklin Bishop, R-Raymond, originally proposed a broader expansion of benefits similar to Vermont’s and saw that plan shot down this year. Still, he is backing this bill as a step in the right direction.
“It’s an issue of fairness,” he said. Employers pay into the unemployment fund regardless of whether employees work full or part-time. “We just fail to recognize these people are a viable work force.”
Not all part-time workers with young children have spouses with full-time jobs to fall back on either, Bishop notes.
If unemployment benefits are not extended to part-time workers, town welfare offices and social service agencies pay the consequences, he said. That’s the reason the unemployment insurance system was first created during the Depression, he noted.
But there are other valid reasons why people are limited to part-time work. Some have a temporary health problem; others have an elderly relative to care for.
Brothers said it’s not his intention to ignore these folks. As part of this proposal, he hopes to gather data on why people are limited to part-time work and then move to expand benefits to those with health issues or other family responsibilities.
“I believe the data will support it. It’s my thought this is what we should be doing,” he said.
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