This bill amends Iowa's unemployment insurance tax laws, specifically modifying the definition of taxable wages and the calculation of employer contribution rates. It eliminates the inclusion of wages paid to employees from other states in the taxable wage calculation, provided those states extend similar comity to Iowa. Additionally, the bill reduces the percentage of the statewide average weekly wage used in the calculation from 66.66% to 33.33%, which will affect the maximum weekly benefit amounts. The bill also revises the current reserve fund ratio calculation, shifting it from a five-quarter basis to a yearly basis, and removes the requirement to add $150 million to the total funds available for benefits.

Furthermore, the bill reduces the number of benefit ratio ranks from 21 to 9 and modifies the contribution rate tables from eight to four, changing the designation from numbers to letters. The highest contribution rate corresponding to the highest benefit ratio rank is decreased from 9% to 5.40%. Employers are encouraged to use any savings resulting from these changes to pay for employee salaries or benefits or as an alternative to unemployment benefits during seasonal unemployment. Overall, the bill aims to streamline the unemployment insurance tax structure and provide financial relief to employers.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 96.1A, 96.7