§ 502 — Wage reporting - findings and policy

§ 502. Wage reporting - findings and policy. The legislature hereby\nfinds and declares that New York state is committed to developing the\nmost efficient and effective system possible for administering the\nunemployment insurance system which, for more than a half century, has\nprovided financial support to workers who have lost their jobs through\nno fault of their own.\n Unlike all other states and territories, which administer their\nunemployment insurance systems pursuant to a wage reporting system\nwhereby employers report employee wages on a regular basis, New York\nmaintains a wage request system. In order to acquire the enormous amount\nof wage data necessary to calculate unemployment insurance benefits\nusing such a system, the department is required to send out hundreds of\nthousands of wage requests to employers every year. These requests are\nfor information which, in large part, is submitted by employers on a\nquarterly basis to the statewide wage reporting system administered by\nthe department of taxation and finance.\n Given the size and complexity of the unemployment insurance system, an\nincrease in efficiency will necessarily result in significant\nimprovements in the services provided to benefit claimants and\nemployers. The improvements for benefit claimants that would result from\nthe implementation of a wage reporting system include more timely and\naccurate entitlement and benefit rate determinations, a reduction in the\nneed to rely upon a claimant's own tax and wage statements and a\ndecrease in claimant overpayments which must be recovered at a later\ndate. As for employers, they would, for the large majority of benefit\nclaims filed, no longer be required to provide employee wage data upon\nrequest, which would remove a significant employer burden as well as the\npotential for a fifty dollar penalty each time a wage request is not\nanswered in a timely manner. Wage reporting would also reduce the number\nof employers incorrectly charged for benefits.\n Furthermore, the department is accountable under federal and state law\nto measure the success of training, employment and reemployment\ninitiatives operated pursuant to such laws. The assessment of individual\nperformance is the best way to measure program quality and to develop\nprogram improvements. Job placement, employment duration and earnings\nare basic outcomes used to measure such performance. Information\nsurveys, traditionally used to collect such data, have proved to be both\nexpensive and unreliable because of low response rates and faulty recall\nby those who respond. Using the statewide wage reporting system to track\nsuch performance outcomes will avoid these problems and produce a\nreliable system of accountability while placing no additional burdens on\nemployers.\n Accordingly, for the above reasons, section one hundred seventy-one-a\nof the tax law is amended to provide the department with complete access\nto the wage reporting files maintained by the department of taxation and\nfinance as the first stage in a transition to an unemployment insurance\nsystem based upon such wage reporting files, with the express\nrequirement that the department shall design and operate such system so\nthat an individual eligible for benefits under the current law would be\neligible for the same amount of benefits under a new system based upon\nthe wage reporting files. In addition, complete access to the wage\nreporting files is granted for administration of the department's\nemployment security programs as well as for evaluation of the effect on\nearnings of participation in training programs with respect to which the\ndepartment has reporting, monitoring or evaluating responsibilities.\n