South Carolina General Assembly
124th Session, 2021-2022

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A229, R260, S1090

STATUS INFORMATION

General Bill
Sponsors: Senator Massey
Document Path: l:\s-res\asm\043ui w.kmm.asm.docx

Introduced in the Senate on February 22, 2022
Introduced in the House on March 2, 2022
Last Amended on June 15, 2022
Passed by the General Assembly on June 15, 2022
Governor's Action: June 17, 2022, Signed

Summary: Unemployment benefits

HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

     Date      Body   Action Description with journal page number
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   2/22/2022  Senate  Introduced and read first time (Senate Journal-page 4)
   2/22/2022  Senate  Referred to Committee on Labor, Commerce and Industry 
                        (Senate Journal-page 4)
   2/24/2022  Senate  Committee report: Favorable with amendment Labor, 
                        Commerce and Industry (Senate Journal-page 8)
   2/24/2022  Senate  Special order, set for  February 24, 2022 
                        (Senate Journal-page 19)
   2/28/2022  Senate  Committee Amendment Adopted (Senate Journal-page 39)
    3/1/2022  Senate  Amended (Senate Journal-page 39)
    3/1/2022  Senate  Read second time (Senate Journal-page 39)
    3/1/2022  Senate  Roll call Ayes-25  Nays-9 (Senate Journal-page 39)
    3/2/2022  Senate  Read third time and sent to House 
                        (Senate Journal-page 18)
    3/2/2022  House   Introduced and read first time (House Journal-page 103)
    3/2/2022  House   Referred to Committee on Labor, Commerce and Industry 
                        (House Journal-page 103)
   3/22/2022          Amended
    3/9/2022  House   Committee report: Favorable with amendment Labor, 
                        Commerce and Industry (House Journal-page 2)
   3/10/2022  House   Amended (House Journal-page 16)
   3/10/2022  House   Read second time (House Journal-page 16)
   3/10/2022  House   Roll call Yeas-91  Nays-19 (House Journal-page 19)
   3/10/2022  House   Unanimous consent for third reading on next legislative 
                        day (House Journal-page 20)
   3/11/2022  House   Read third time and returned to Senate with amendments
   3/11/2022          Scrivener's error corrected
   3/22/2022  Senate  House amendment amended (Senate Journal-page 27)
   3/22/2022  Senate  Roll call Ayes-30  Nays-7 (Senate Journal-page 27)
   3/22/2022  Senate  Returned to House with amendments 
                        (Senate Journal-page 27)
   3/30/2022  House   Debate adjourned until  Tues., 4-5-22 
                        (House Journal-page 23)
    4/6/2022  House   Debate adjourned until  Tues., 4-19-22 
                        (House Journal-page 169)
   4/19/2022  House   Non-concurrence in Senate amendment 
                        (House Journal-page 225)
   4/19/2022  House   Roll call Yeas-0  Nays-107 (House Journal-page 225)
   4/20/2022  Senate  Senate insists upon amendment and conference committee 
                        appointed  Massey, Bennett, K. Johnson 
                        (Senate Journal-page 19)
   4/27/2022  House   Conference committee appointed  Wooten, Blackwell, 
                        Jefferson (House Journal-page 2)
   6/15/2022  House   Conference report received and adopted 
                        (House Journal-page 175)
   6/15/2022  House   Roll call Yeas-101  Nays-0 (House Journal-page 77)
   6/15/2022  Senate  Conference report received and adopted 
                        (Senate Journal-page 178)
   6/15/2022  Senate  Roll call Ayes-34  Nays-6
   6/15/2022  House   Ordered enrolled for ratification 
                        (House Journal-page 225)
   6/16/2022          Ratified R  260
   6/17/2022          Signed By Governor
   6/28/2022          Effective date  06/17/22
   6/28/2022          Act No.  229

View the latest legislative information at the website

VERSIONS OF THIS BILL

2/22/2022
2/24/2022
2/28/2022
3/1/2022
3/9/2022
3/10/2022
3/11/2022
3/22/2022
6/15/2022


(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

(A229, R260, S1090)

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 41-35-40, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO INSURED WORKERS' WEEKLY UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS, SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT THE MAXIMUM WEEKLY BENEFIT AMOUNT SET EACH YEAR BY THE DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT AND WORKFORCE WITHIN THE ESTABLISHED RANGE MUST BE PUBLISHED ON THE WEBSITE OF THE DEPARTMENT, TO PROVIDE THAT THE PROCEDURE FOR RECONSIDERING DETERMINATIONS OF WEEKLY BENEFIT AMOUNTS PURSUANT TO SECTION 41-35-640 IS THE SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE PROCEDURE AND REMEDY FOR DISPUTING SUCH DETERMINATIONS, TO RATIFY AND AFFIRM THAT THE DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT AND WORKFORCE HAS FAITHFULLY EXECUTED THE PROVISIONS CONTAINED IN SECTION 41-35-40 IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CLEAR LANGUAGE OF THE STATUTE AND THE INTENT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, APPLIED RETROACTIVELY TO JULY 1, 2007; AND TO AMEND SECTION 41-31-60, RELATING TO THE COMPUTATION OF EMPLOYERS' TAX RATES WHEN DELINQUENT REPORTS ARE RECEIVED, SO AS TO PROVIDE THE TAX CLASS TWENTY RATE MUST BE ASSIGNED UNTIL THE NEXT COMPUTATION DATE OR UNTIL ALL OUTSTANDING TAX REPORTS HAVE BEEN FILED.

Whereas, pursuant to Section 41-27-40, the General Assembly has the right to amend or repeal all or any part of Chapters 27 through 41 of this title at any time and there is no vested private right of any kind against such amendment or repeal; and

Whereas, the General Assembly intended to charge the department with the administration of Title 41, Chapters 27 through 41, which includes the enforcement, interpretation, and execution of Section 41-35-40; and

Whereas, the General Assembly has known of the department's enforcement, interpretation, and execution of Section 41-35-40 regarding the weekly maximum benefit amounts paid to claimants; and

Whereas, the General Assembly has continuously approved the decades long practice by the department and its predecessor, the Employment Security Commission, of exercising its discretion to set a weekly maximum amount of unemployment benefits that an individual may receive in a week for the legitimate legislative purpose of ensuring the solvency of the unemployment insurance trust fund and that there are adequate funds to pay unemployment insurance benefits to individuals unemployed through no fault of their own; and

Whereas, the General Assembly believes that the department's enforcement, interpretation, and execution of Section 41-35-40 has been and continues to be reasonable and consistent with the General Assembly's intent and charge to administer Section 41-35-40; and

Whereas, the General Assembly intends to explicitly reaffirm that the department has always had the discretion to establish a maximum amount of unemployment benefits an individual may receive each week; and

Whereas, the General Assembly intends for this act to apply retroactively and govern all claims for unemployment insurance filed on or after July 1, 2007, and to apply to all proceedings disputing the department's calculation of an unemployed individual's maximum weekly benefit amount pending on or commenced after the date of the enactment of this act. Now, therefore,

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

Maximum weekly unemployment benefits, ratification and affirmation of DEW actions applied retroactively

SECTION    1.    A.        Section 41-35-40 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:

"Section 41-35-40.    (A)    An insured worker's weekly benefit amount is fifty percent of his weekly average wage, as defined in Section 41-27-140, and the weekly benefit amount, if not a multiple of one dollar, must be computed to the next lower multiple of one dollar. However, no insured worker's weekly benefit amount may be less than forty-two dollars nor greater than sixty-six and two-thirds percent of the statewide average weekly wage most recently computed before the beginning of the individual's benefit year.

(B)    The maximum weekly benefit amount set each year by the department within the range established in subsection (A) must be published on the department's website.

(C)    The procedure for reconsideration of determinations pursuant to Section 41-35-640 is the sole and exclusive procedure and remedy for disputing the department's determination of an insured worker's weekly benefit amount."

B.    The General Assembly ratifies and affirms that the department has reasonably and faithfully interpreted, executed, and enforced the provisions contained in Section 41-35-40 in accordance with its charge of the administration of the statute and the General Assembly's intent. The provisions of this SECTION shall apply retroactively to govern all claims for unemployment insurance benefits on or after July 1, 2007, so that all such claims are subject to the maximum weekly benefit amount set by the department at the time the claim was filed.

Employers' tax rate computations, delinquent reports

SECTION    2.    Section 41-31-60(A) of the 1976 Code is amended to read:

"(A)    If on the computation date upon which an employer's tax rate is to be computed as provided in Section 41-31-40 there is a delinquent report, the tax class twenty rate must be assigned to the employer until the next computation date or until all outstanding tax reports have been filed."

Severability

SECTION    3.    If any section, subsection, paragraph, subparagraph, sentence, clause, phrase, or word of this act is for any reason held to be unconstitutional or invalid, such holding shall not affect the constitutionality or validity of the remaining portions of this act, the General Assembly hereby declaring that it would have passed this act, and each and every section, subsection, paragraph, subparagraph, sentence, clause, phrase, and word thereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or more other sections, subsections, paragraphs, subparagraphs, sentences, clauses, phrases, or words hereof may be declared to be unconstitutional, invalid, or otherwise ineffective.

Time effective

SECTION    4.    This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.

Ratified the 16th day of June, 2022.

Approved the 17th day of June, 2022.

__________


This web page was last updated on July 19, 2022 at 11:10 AM