2021 Fall Funder Learning Series: Building a More Robust and Equitable Unemployment Insurance System for a 21st Century Economy

While the need for a better Unemployment Insurance (UI) system was apparent before COVID-19, the economic crisis caused by the pandemic has shown that our outdated and underfunded system is broken, with disproportionate impacts on women and workers of color. With too few unemployed workers qualifying for benefits, inadequate levels and duration of benefits, and the lack of effective triggers that tie benefit duration to economic conditions, the UI system fails to meet the needs of today’s workers or economy.

The second program of the EOF Fall Funder Learning Series, this webinar included a discussion about key organizing, policy, and systems design and implementation strategies for making the permanent reforms needed to transform the UI system into a fully functioning and readily accessible program that protects all jobless workers and their families and effectively stabilizes the economy during economic downturns.

		Jean Ross, The Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust (Moderator) [bio]				William Spriggs, Howard University and AFL-CIO [bio]
		Tara McGuinness, New America [bio]				Arelia Valdivia, Center for Popular Democracy [bio]

Webinar Recap:

As businesses scaled down in size or closed their doors during the pandemic, millions of Americans found themselves unemployed. In March 2020, the CARES Act expanded states’ ability to provide unemployment insurance to many workers affected by the pandemic, including those typically not covered. This includes restaurant workers, caregivers, and others who work parttime – disproportionately, workers of color and women. Without this support, these workers would have had no safety net, and, as William Spriggs put it during our webinar, “the economic repercussions would have been unimaginable.” Now, despite unemployment insurance reform not making it into the Build Back Better bill, organizations are fighting to make this relief permanent and improve access to unemployment benefits.

While harmful stereotypes about people who receive unemployment benefits still dominate the public discourse, groups like the Center for Popular Democracy are working to change the narrative. Unemployed people are coming together across race, income level, industry, and geography to share their stories in an effort to put in place a system that works for all people. With support from funders, organizations like the Center for Popular Democracy are collecting hundreds of stories, training people as leaders and spokespeople, and educating people on the connection between anti-Black racism and the problems with unemployment insurance. After all, the gaps in our existing unemployment insurance system are not an accident—they are by design. Policies that deliberately excluded jobs held primarily by Black Americans still hurt people from marginalized groups today.

Funders must help organizers uplift the voices of the workers who are using these systems. Policy changes must be informed by feedback from workers and their families. And antiquated, difficult-to-navigate systems must be updated and made accessible to all. With the right resources, advocates can carry on this fight for the long term.

Video Recording:

Related Resources:

A Playbook for Improving Unemployment Insurance Delivery, By Ryan Burke, Mikey Dickerson, Lauren Lockwood, Tara Dawson McGuinness, Marina Nitze, Ayushi Roy, and Emily Wright-Moore, New America, June 22, 2021.

Reforming unemployment insurance: Stabilizing a system in crisis and laying the foundation for equity, By Josh Bivens (Economic Policy Institute), Melissa Boteach (National Women’s Law Center), Rachel Deutsch (Center for Popular Democracy), Francisco Díez (Center for Popular Democracy), Rebecca Dixon (National Employment Law Project), Brian Galle (Georgetown University Law Center), Alix Gould-Werth (Washington Center for Equitable Growth), Nicole Marquez (National Employment Law Project), Lily Roberts (Center for American Progress), Heidi Shierholz (Economic Policy Institute), William Spriggs (AFL-CIO and Howard University), June 2021.

Congress Should Heed President Biden’s Call for Fundamental UI Reform, By Chad Stone, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, May 5, 2021. 

A Plan to Reform the Unemployment Insurance System in the United States, By Arindrajit Dube, The Hamilton Project, April 12, 2021.

The Urgency and Popularity of Transforming America’s Unemployment Insurance System: A policy and polling memo from the Center for Popular Democracy and Data for Progress, By Rachel Deutsch (Center for Popular Democracy), Francisco Diez Worker (Center for Popular Democracy), Ethan Winter (Data for Progress), Morgan Sperr (Data for Progress), April 2021.

Centering Workers—How to Modernize Unemployment Insurance Technology, By Julia Simon-Mishel, Maurice Emsellem, Michele Evermore, Ellen LeClere, Andrew Stettner and Martha Coven, The Century Foundation, October 5, 2020.

National Academy of Social Insurance Task Force on Unemployment Insurance