The Effects of Increasing the Federal Taxable Wage Base for Unemployment Insurance

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The Effects of Increasing the Federal Taxable Wage Base for Unemployment Insurance

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1995-1

Publication Info

The objective of this study was to examine the effects of increase in the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Federal Taxable Wage Base. To accomplish this objective, universe wage record data were obtained from four States (Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, and Texas) for calendar years 1990 and 1991. The weighted average wage in these States in 1991 was very close (98.7 percent) to the weighted average wage of all the States. A State-by-State simulation model was also developed based on historical relationships between the taxable wage bas and the taxable wage proportion of total wages. Combined with estimates of the elasticities of demand and factor substation obtained from a review of the theoretical literature, the model can be used to provide estimates of the employment effects of raising the Federal taxable wage base to various levels using different assumptions of model parameters.