ANNAPOLIS (AP) — Part-time employees in Maryland won’t be eligible for unemployment benefits after all.
A bill to expand state unemployment benefits to cover part-time workers died yesterday by a single vote in a House committee. The vote on the legislature’s last working day means the measure is shelved until at least next year.
The Senate narrowly passed the proposal last month.
The bill was backed by state regulators, who say the marketplace has changed and more people work part time and should be eligible to receive unemployment benefits.
Businesses opposed the bill, saying that it would cost too much and that part-timers don’t need unemployment benefits.
“It’s just one more burden on small business,” said Delegate James J. King, Anne Arundel Republican, who owns two restaurants and voted against the bill in the House Economic Matters Committee, which voted 10-10 on the bill, not enough to forward it to the full House.
The bill would have allowed people who work part time to receive unemployment benefits if they become unable to find part-time work. They already are eligible for such benefits if they seek a full-time job.
“Now, you have a lot more people working part time,” said Susan Bass, a legislative liaison for the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, which pushed for the bill.
Miss Bass told lawmakers that about half the states currently allow part-timers to receive unemployment benefits.
An activist tracking the bill for a workers’ advocacy group called the bill’s defeat a setback.
“We’re heading into a recession. People are going to be needing this,” said Jason Perkins-Cohen, executive director of the Baltimore-based Job Opportunities Task Force.
But lawmakers who decided not to forward the measure also cited the ailing economy. Mr. King said businesses can’t afford to set aside more for unemployment insurance.
“This was a win for small business,” Mr. King said after the committee vote.
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