Happy 88th Birthday to Social Insurance!

Today marks the 88th birthday of two landmark federal programs: the Social Security Act and the Unemployment Insurance Program.

In this blog post, the U.S. Department of Labor commemorates the anniversary of these two programs, which were designed to provide a safety net for workers in times of unemployment, loss of a primary earner, or at the end of their working life.

While these programs were far from perfect (many jobs historically held by Black workers, immigrant workers, and women workers were left out) they did establish a foundation for growing a social insurance program,. As noted in the DOL’s post, the COVID pandemic raised the question of whether more workers should be covered by UI benefits, the adequacy of benefit rates, and the challenges with the current program technology to accurately and efficiently process claims and deter fraud by both workers and employers. Much to accomplish in the next ii years.