The recently introduced House Bill 2032 would exempt businesses that employ foreign workers from paying state unemployment compensation.
The workers also would be exempt and would be required to be legally employed in Pennsylvania under the federal H-2A program. The program allows employers to hire immigrants for temporary agricultural jobs.
The federal government stopped collecting unemployment compensation from H-2A workers and their employers in the 1990s, and H-2A workers are not eligible for unemployment compensation under both federal and state laws.
“These employers and legal workers went through the proper channels and followed the rules in order to work in Pennsylvania,” Rep. Torren Ecker (R-Adams/Cumberland), who introduced the bill, said. “However, despite not being eligible for unemployment compensation, they and their employers are forced to pay into the fund through taxes with each paycheck. This has caused employers, including farmers, to pay several thousands of dollars in unnecessary taxes.”
The bill would align Pennsylvania’s seasonal-agriculture-worker laws with those in use at the federal level and would save farm families and their seasonal workers thousands in tax dollars, Ecker said.
The bill, which has bipartisan support, amends the act of 1936, known as the Unemployment Compensation Law.