Hawaii companies need to step up and tell their legislative representatives exactly how the jump in their unemployment insurance taxes will affect their individual business and current or future hiring, according to speakers at HEC’s January 29 briefing on the pending UI tax hike.

Dept. of Labor and Industrial Relations Director Darwin Ching outlined that if the current law is not changed by March 12, 2010, employers with a zero percent experience rating (i.e. no UI claims against their account) would go from no taxes in 2009 to $180 per employee; those at the highest rating of 5.4 percent would go from $700 to $2,100 per employee. The widely used figure for the average employer: UI taxes would increase from $90 last year to $1,070. Ching noted that proposals to reduce benefits would not yield immediate tax relief for at least “a couple of years,” and that companies should learn about how the tax increase will affect them, what the three major proposals to provide businesses with tax relief are, and to contact their legislators to provide support for the proposals. DLIR has an analysis of each proposal on page 13 of its Alternatives to Unemployment Insurance Tax Increases. ( DLIR also has a calculator to estimate how much the company should set aside for UI taxes.)

Speaker John Knorek of Torkildson Katz Moore Hetherington & Harris said that there are some legislators who may not support the tax relief proposals, and he urged employers to let their representatives know how their company will be affected in terms of either layoffs or restricted expansion if the State Legislature does not take action.

Ching also introduced DLIR’s Volunteer Internship Program, in which eligible Hawaii businesses can gain trainees for up to eight weeks at no expense: the job seekers would receive unemployment benefits and DLIR would also provide limited medical coverage during the training period. DLIR has issued a Frequently Asked Questions guide on the program.