Florida companies to see 2021 unemployment tax improve, employees’ compensation price minimize | Florida

(The Center Square) – Florida companies will pay higher unemployment taxes but lower employee compensation rates in 2021, a bad news and good news scenario fueled by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Florida Department of the Treasury (FDOR) will raise the unemployment tax rate for the vast majority of employers in the state in January, according to a press release from the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

The maximum rate paid by relatively few large companies with a higher tendency to lay off will remain 5.4% for the first $ 7,000 in wages, or $ 378 per employee, the chamber said.

However, the unemployment tax rates for most Florida companies, especially those with a three-year history of no layoffs, are closer to the minimum than the maximum.

Corporations that pay the state’s minimum labor tax rate – 0.1 percent, or $ 7 per employee – will pay $ 20.30 for each employee under the FDOR structure in 2021, the chamber said, the increase without contestation or Confirmation by the department announced.

The FDOR’s upcoming hikes will replenish the State Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund, which was slashed from $ 4 billion in March to $ 1.3 billion after more than 2.12 million unemployed Floridians as of November totaled $ 19 billion. USD submitted.

According to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (FDEO), Florida lost 1.18 million jobs from February to April. By the end of November, according to the FDEO, more than half had been recovered. Florida has paid state and federal benefits totaling nearly $ 18.9 billion to 2,119,166 applicants, according to FDEO.

After forced republican lawmakers to borrow $ 2.3 billion from the federal government in 2009 to meet unemployment claims during the 2008-09 Great Recession, they capped the weekly maximum that same year at the behest of former Governor Rick Scott Unemployment payout to US $ 275 the fifth lowest and reduced the maximum funding period from 26 to 12, the shortest amount of time in the country to “enlarge” the state unemployment trust fund.

The Task Force Restoring Economic Strength Through Employment and Tourism (RESET) this week recommended that lawmakers create a tax credit for employers to contribute to the Unemployment Fund and pass a law banning insurers from ” Punish companies for layoffs related to COVID in connection with future unemployment tax rates ”.

Meanwhile, Florida workers’ compensation rates will decrease an average of 6.6% effective Jan. 1, Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier ordered last week.

The decline marks the fourth straight year that Florida workers’ compensation premiums have declined and is nearly 1 percentage point above the 5.7% cut recommended by the National Compensation Insurance Council (NCCI), which sets rates for the insurance industry .

The 6.6% reduction is justified, Altmaier wrote, because “the compensation market has shown an underwriting profit over the past six years, partly due to safer jobs and a long-term shift from manufacturing to service.”