West Virginia Watch, News from the States - Gov. Jim Justice has allowed two bills — one restructuring the state’s unemployment benefit program and another allowing the sale of raw milk — to become law without his signature. Read the full article. Justice neither vetoed nor signed Senate Bill 841 or House Bill 4911 before…
Income and Work
West Virginia Watch, News from the States - A bill that would create a work apprenticeship program for 11th and 12th graders in West Virginia has raised concerns it may also expose them to hazardous working environments, including roofing operations. Read the full article. House Bill 5162 would direct the state Department of Education to create a…
Public News Service - Critics say a bill passed by West Virginia lawmakers increases the bureaucratic red tape folks who rely on unemployment benefits have to navigate and could financially hurt families already struggling with the high cost of living and ongoing inflation. Read the full article. Kelly Allen, executive director with the West Virginia…
West Virginia Watch, News from the States - With hours to spare on the last night of the West Virginia Legislature’s 60-day session, the House of Delegates approved an amended version of a Senate bill that changes the structure of the state’s unemployment benefit program. Read the full article. Delegates passed Senate Bill 841 with a…
Mountain State Spotlight, Times West Virginian, Fayette Tribune - As the House Finance Committee began discussing a quickly-drafted unemployment bill on Monday, it quickly became apparent that lawmakers were going to have lots of questions. Within minutes, the committee hit its first roadblock: How much are unemployment benefits? Read the full article. Questions continued over the course…
Earlier this week the House Finance committee passed SB 841, hastily drafted legislation that would make major changes to the state’s unemployment insurance system to the detriment of the state’s workers. These changes include cutting the number of weeks of unemployment benefits available to the state’s unemployed workers, reducing overall benefits for many workers, and…
Weirton Daily Times, Parkersburg News and Sentinel, The Intermountain - Members of a West Virginia House of Delegates committee signed on to a state Senate bill making changes to unemployment benefits. But opponents believe it could end up adding to the state’s already poor labor force participation rate. Read the full article. The House Finance…
West Virginia Watch, News from the States - A bill that would cut the duration of unemployment benefits in the state is heading for a vote by the full West Virginia House of Delegates. Read the full article. After a 3.5 hour discussion Monday afternoon, the House finance committee voted 14 to 9 to advance Senate…
After 100 years of progress, child labor violations in the United States are soaring, and corporate interest groups are pushing coordinated efforts across states to roll back critical child labor protections, with at least 12 states enacting harmful rollbacks. In West Virginia, the House of Delegates passed HB 5159, which would weaken child labor protections…
West Virginia Public Broadcasting - The Senate passed a bill that would reduce overall unemployment benefits but increase initial benefits. Read the full article. Senate Bills 840 and 841 would have steeply cut unemployment benefits. Those bills were combined and amended to substantially reduce the change to the state’s unemployment benefits. The engrossed bill that passed the Senate shaves two weeks…