The First Wave of New York’s UI Crisis is Here

July 18th, 2022

Employers across New York are about to get blindsided by an “Interest Assessment Surcharge” from the New York State Department of Labor. According to an update from the Department of Labor, surcharges stemming from New York’s unemployment insurance debt to Washington are about to hit employers. The surcharge is approximately $27.60 per employee. That may not sound like much, but for business struggling with sky-high inflation, labor shortages and supply chain issues, it’s another burden to bear.

It’s important to remember, this entire crisis could have been avoided if our leaders in Albany paid down the state’s UI debt to Washington in this year’s budget. Despite warnings from Comptroller DiNapoli – the state’s top fiscal watchdog – Albany failed to deliver any UI relief.

Despite the Department of Labor’s claims that it is “reducing the principal balance both aggressively and intentionally”, the reality is that it will take 6 years for New York to pay down its UI debt at the current repayment rate of $1 billion every nine months. This surcharge, coupled with UI rate increases, will certainly drive up the cost of doing business in New York; which according to a new CNBC ranking is one of the most expensive states for business in the nation.