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Two simple points: 1) Unemployment Insurance is a Federal program, but it is administered by the states, and the states levy taxes on the employer AND employee for it. 2) Employee check stubs (and W-2s) don't reflect hundreds of dollars per week, hundreds that the employer owes the employee for working, and that money is part of your 'Total Compensation' package. The 'employer contribution' portion of your pay isn't reported to you, the worker. This is for employers' tax purposes, it benefits employers at tax time. Too many American employees don't understand that, so the repugs get away with the lie that we didn't earn these benefits, and don't deserve them. An easy way to see through this lie is to look at your own check stubs to see how much money you earned for your medical insurance plan, if you're lucky enough to be working and have health insurance, in the America that the bush repugs created. If you see zero dollars/hour, don't worry. The medical insurance you EARNED still exists. You also earned every cent of the 'employer contribution' to your unemployment insurance. They have to pay you these funds, to entice you to work for them in the first place. They aren't doing it out of the kindness of their hearts, they are competing with other employers to hire you.
As a union construction worker, I work for many different employers every year, through my union hall's hiring referral system. This happens to millions of AFL/CIO - employed Americans, every year. Each employer, (on every check stub), shows the 'employee contribution' that is deducted for unemployment funds. Here are 7 deduction entry titles from the past 3 years: 1) Sometimes the deduction is called 'State Unemployment Insurance (SUI)' as Busch Electric Construction Inc. (in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania), terms it. 2) Sometimes it is termed 'Pennsylvania Unemp. SUTA', as Franklin Electric, LP (in Pittsburgh, PA), puts it. Or 3) it is put down as 'PA Unemployment Compensation (UC) Fund', as Lighthouse Electric Company, Inc. calls it. Or 4) it is deducted as 'PA UC (Unemployment Comp)', by Precision Electrical Contractors, Inc. 5) In the case of Hoffman Elec., Inc., my wage deduction is mysteriously abbreviated as 'EE SUTA PA' (the 'U' is for unemployment); or 6) it's termed (and deducted) as 'SDI' by Chapman Corporation (& you got me by the short ones what any letter means, but it's the same deduction. Maybe the 'S' means State). 7) Fallon Electric Co., Inc., in Pittsburgh, calls it 'PA State Unemployment Compensation (UC)'. Powell Electric Corporation calls it 'State Unemployment Insurance (SUI)', the same as Busch Electric. These seven employer check-deduction entry-titles are just a few examples of check stubs I currently have at hand, going back 15 years. These deduction entry-titles are all indisputable and very proveable facts.
On the same check stubs, each employer shows zero dollars that I have earned, or have had deducted, for my medical plan. But the employers are contractually obligated to pay me that money, if they want me to work for them and make them money. As a currently unemployed person, I can say that I owe my medical insurance plan $280 per week, or $7 dollars per hour, if I want my family and myself to keep the same medical coverage. The employers, insurance companies, and government are all very willing to tell me how much I am worth, when they are telling me how much I am costing them by being unemployed, and hence, how much I OWE THEM. But they aren't willing to put in writing, on check stubs and tax documents, that THEY OWE ME that $280/week, every week that I work for them. That particular contractual obligation, between employee and employer, is not reflected on my stubs. (But keep in mind that the repugs WERE floating a proposal to tax me for that health plan, in an effort to turn Americans with insurance against Americans that didn't have insurance, during the Health Care reform fight.) The 'employer contribution' part of my unemployment insurance is exactly the same as the 'employer contribution' part of my medical insurance. We worked for, and earned, the 'employer contribution' for unemployment. Again, the employers aren't paying it out of the kindness of their hearts. This is true whether the 'employer contributions' are to unemployment funds or medical insurance funds, or FICA, or Medicare, or retirement pension, or Social Security, etc. My union sisters and brothers make two figures in dollars per hour, in terms of benefits, that are not on our pay stubs. And we make two figures in dollars per hour on our pay checks, reflected in various deduction entry-titles on the pay stubs.
The 'employee contribution' deductions by employer companies, for unemployment insurance -- those deductions exist, and we earned that money. This is easily provable, just look at your pay stubs. We also earned the 'employer contribution' part of our unemployment insurance. It's part of the total compensation package that our employment contract secures for us. Anyone who denies those two facts is either poorly informed, or is knowingly working for the other team. If the latter is true, I hope they have a nice total compensation package, because it sure is hard work trying to defend ANY repug policy.
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