Sen. Stadelman renews call for work-share

Lead sponsor of neglected unemployment law says it’s made for coronavirus economic crisis

A work-share law already on the books in Illinois could provide relief on unemployment — and $1 billion in federal funding. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)

By Ted Cox

The lead sponsor of a neglected law designed to ease unemployment says it’s made for a crisis like the coronavirus pandemic, and he’s renewing calls for it to be implemented — with $1 billion in federal funding to be gained.

State Sen. Steve Stadelman of Rockford ran an op-ed column recently in the Freeport Journal Standard. “If you’re a skeptic of state government programs, imagine one that could save tens of thousands of jobs, boost worker incomes by millions of dollars, and save money for taxpayers,” Stadelman wrote. “Illinois already has such a program. It’s called ‘work-share.’”

Stadelman goes on to point out he was lead sponsor of the work-share bill, which passed the General Assembly and was signed into law in 2014 by then-Gov. Pat Quinn.

Basically, the law attempts to ease unemployment by enabling workers who’ve had their hours cut to claim prorated benefits for the lost work. They’d retain any health insurance — critical in a pandemic like COVID-19 — along with any retirement benefits, as with furloughed employees, but with the added benefit that they’d remain employed part time so the state would not be paying their entire unemployment.

The Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign published a study on the law early this month, cited by Stadelman in his op-ed. It points out “that work-share programs have enjoyed broad support in both the business community and the labor movement, with both the Illinois Manufacturers Association and the Illinois AFL-CIO supporting enactment of state work-share legislation in 2014.”

“Fully 91 percent of employers who have participated in these programs have said they would do so again because they protect against the lost productivity and high turnover costs that accompany mass layoffs,” said study co-author and UIUC Professor Dr. Robert Bruno, director of the Project for Middle Class Renewal. “Work-share enables employers to manage short-term downturns without sacrificing their ability to quickly and efficiently scale up operations during a recovery. To minimize the economic damage from COVID-19, the key for Illinois is to implement its program in a way that maximizes utilization by businesses and workers.”

The study estimates that “full implementation of Illinois’s work-share program could save as many as 124,000 jobs, boost worker income by $1.3 billion, save businesses up to $1.2 billion in workforce turnover, and reduce Illinois’s unemployment-insurance costs by as much as $1.1 billion in 2020.”

Stadelman points out that $1.1 billion windfall to Illinois would come from federal funding allotted in the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package passed by Congress and signed by President Trump. Some 29 states and the District of Columbia have work-share programs, and the new relief package reimburses states for the entire cost of the programs through this year.

But work-share was never implemented by Gov. Rauner during his four-year term following Quinn. Early this month, after the ILEPI-UIUC study was published, Gov. Pritzker called work-share “an excellent program,” citing that Rauner “didn’t act on it,” but adding, “We are looking at how we might open a program like that, a work-share program. … Whatever we can get to support workers, to expand the workforce or make available opportunities for people who are laid off, we are going to pursue.”

The Illinois Department of Employment Security has had its hands full with the record unemployment claims made over the last month and a half, while also implementing a system for so-called gig workers idled during the coronavirus lockdown — another unemployment expansion funded by the federal relief package. But Pritzker suggested his administration and IDES are working to add a work-share program.

“State and federal governments have already taken unprecedented actions to stabilize the economy, and I’m encouraged Gov. J.B. Pritzker has articulated plans to fully implement Illinois’s work-share program,” Stadelman concluded. “I believe work-share will provide additional relief to businesses and workers in what will likely be more difficult days ahead.”