Unemployment insurance bump is welcome but not nearly enough

NC Newsline

Republican legislators seldom boost programs that help vulnerable people so, on one level, it’s welcome news that a state House committee advanced a bill this week to increase North Carolina’s maximum weekly unemployment insurance benefit.

Under the bill, the max weekly benefit would rise from the laughably insufficient current level — $350 — to the still woefully inadequate figure of $450.

Davie County Republican Julia Howard is among the bill’s lead sponsors and she deserves credit for saying the benefit ought to be even higher.

Unfortunately, even if the bill becomes law — something hardly guaranteed — our state will still have one of the nation’s weakest and most inadequate unemployment insurance systems. It’s been that way since GOP lawmakers eviscerated it in 2013.

The bottom line: Providing a basic and adequate social safety net for people out of work through no fault of their own should not be controversial. Let’s hope the bill becomes law quickly and that it’s just the first step in rebuilding our state’s threadbare unemployment insurance system.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.