What Stimulus Means to HR

The stimulus package that President Obama recently signed into law has some direct and lasting effects on Human Resources. SHRM did a terrific job of outlining the major points of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and we wanted to share those HR-related items with you.

Extending Unemployment and Health Coverage

• A nine-month extension of a program that offers an additional seven weeks of unemployment benefits. Benefits would be increased by $25 per week.
• A seven-week extension of jobless benefits, which provides unemployed workers up to 33 weeks of benefits, was extended to December 31. The proposal would exempt the first $2,400 of unemployment benefits from federal income taxes.
• The plan will appropriate $20 billion to offer health insurance coverage to the unemployed under COBRA. The coverage features a 65 percent subsidy of the health insurance premiums for up to nine months for laid-off workers who qualify for the program.

Health Care Technology

• $19 billion to improve the nation’s health care information technology systems to reduce errors and streamline administrative processes.

Trade Protection for Jobs

• Extend Trade Adjustment Assistance benefits for workers who lose their jobs because of increased imports or because employers move those jobs offshore.

E-Verify

• The House and Senate negotiators removed all provisions that refer to the government’s electronic employment verification system-known as E-Verify.
• Require that businesses that receive funding under the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) hire laid-off U.S. workers or show good cause before recruiting and hiring workers from overseas under the H-1B visa program for highly skilled workers.

Executive Compensation

• Place limits on the compensation packages that businesses receiving TARP funds can offer to their executive teams.

For more information on the Act, visit SHRM or the Recovery Act website.