Women in Business: Voting for the Right to Lead | Updates on UI payments | COVID News

As we honor the Women’s Suffrage Movement and celebrate the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote, I can’t help but be grateful that I am a professional female living in the 21st century. But even as I count my blessings, I still find myself questioning why women seem to consistently fall short in the leadership ranks. Perhaps, as Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg would say, we’re not leaning in or is it due in part to subconscious bias and systemic discrimination?

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Here’s an interesting fact: Women scored statistically higher than men on a vast majority of leadership competencies that were measured in two corporate research studies (2012 and 2019) by the Harvard Business Review. Then why is it that less than 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs are female?

At the August 13 joint Senate and Assembly hearing on the impact of COVID on New York workers, Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon reported that New York had already made about $40 billion in unemployment insurance payments, with temporary, federally-funded benefits under the CARES Act accounting for three-quarters of that amount. The remaining $10 billion was paid as “regular” unemployment insurance benefits provided under state law, and currently capped at $504 per week. These state benefits are 100 percent financed by state payroll taxes on New York employers. But as claims costs have increased to unprecedented levels, exceeding funds in the state’s UI account, New York has already had to take $5 billion in advances from the federal UI trust fund. This, and any additional advances, are repaid through increased state and federal employer taxes, meaning that New York State employers will see increased UI taxes in 2021 and beyond.

We have prepared an overview of the state’s unemployment insurance program, available here, that addresses federal and state UI taxes, recent federal actions, the impact on increased claims on employer costs, pending federal and state legislation, and related issues.

With the CARES Act’s “Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation” program, which provided an additional $600 per week to UI recipients, expiring on July 31, and no Congressional action on additional COVID recovery legislation, President Trump issued an Executive Order on August 8 authorizing FEMA grants to states for the purpose of paying $400 per week in increased UI benefits to claimants. As initially proposed, $300 of that amount would be federally funded, with a mandatory $100 state match. Participation was optional for states, which would have to submit grant requests to FEMA. However, subsequent US DOL guidance stated that the $100 state match was optional, and not a requirement for states to obtain FEMA grants – states are, however, allowed to pay a $100 match using its remaining CARES Act funds. There is no set deadline for the program, rather it would sunset once $44 billion in designated FEMA funds are exhausted. To date, eleven states have been approved for FEMA grants – Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Utah – with another eight states with pending applications. As of today, New York has not indicated whether it would submit a grant application under this program.

New York State issued guidance Thursday for infection rates on college campuses and mitigation actions schools must take when the infection rate rises above certain levels.

On Thursday, New York State created a testing swat team with new temporary testing sites in Western New York in response to the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases.