Nevada employers’ rate to cover jobless claims largely unchanged
CARSON CITY — Nevada employers will pay about the same to cover jobless claims next year as they did this year following adoption Wednesday of a rate schedule for 2015 by the Employment Security Division.
The regulation implementing the new rate schedule was adopted following a public hearing that saw no comment on the proposal.
The average rate paid by businesses would actually increase from 1.95 percent this year to 2 percent next year. But the increase will be offset by a reduction in a separate assessment on businesses that is being used to pay off bonds sold to pay back the federal government for money borrowed to pay jobless benefits during the worst years of the recession.
The two assessments this year total 2.58 percent on average. The total rate will be 2.56 percent in calendar year 2015 beginning Jan. 1.
The agency hopes to pay off the bonds by the end of 2017.
Nevada businesses pay unemployment insurance premiums to both the state and federal government. The federal rate is 0.60 percent of payroll up to $7,000 in wages. The state premium ranges from a 0.25 percent for businesses with the lowest employee turnover to 5.4 percent for those with the worst records.
