390 State Papers and Addresses

STATE CONVENTION—MARYLAND DISTRICT COUNCIL
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR

May 19, 1941
Hagerstown

\,

UNDER legislation sponsored by the Administration, and which I was very
happy, by my signature, to enact into law, the cause of labor in the State
of Maryland has made a decided advance in the past 29 months.

Not only does Maryland now have the most liberal Unemployment Compen-
sation Law of any state in the Middle Atlantic Area, but, likewise, in the field
of compensation for industrial accidents and diseases, the Maryland workman
fares decidely better than in most of the other states in the Country.

As the result of the new legislation which I signed some weeks ago, our
State now pays to unemployed workers a minimum of $7. 00 a week, and a max-
imum of $17. 00 a week, with a general increase in all benefits of about 25%.

Maximum duration of benefits in Maryland is 20 weeks, a period longer
than that of any other Middle Atlantic State. The average benefit payment
under the new law is approximately $10. 50, as compared with $8. 50 last year.
Estimates based on 1940 employment conditions indicate that as a result of
this new legislation, payments to Maryland wage earners for unemployment
compensation would be increased by approximately $2, 200, 000. 00.

Among the many betterments that have been achieved in the matter of
unemployment compensation is the reduction of waiting period from 2 weeks
to 1 week, and lessening the eligibility requirements to earnings of $150. 00 in
the base year.

Under the new provision, Maryland workers now may draw a maximum
of $340. 00 in a benefit year, an amount larger than is available in the same
period in any of the other seven Atlantic Coast States from North Carolina to
New York.

As against the $340. 00 maximum in Maryland, the states of New York,
Pennsylvania and Delaware, for example, limit such benefits to $19'5. 00 in a
single year, and Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina, while more
generous than the above-mentioned states still set a maximum which is exactly
$100. 00 below the Maryland figure. Only New Jersey of the Eastern states,
with an allowance of $324. 00 per year, comes anywhere near the Maryland
figure.

Of definite importance at the moment, too, is the provision now in effect
with regard to individuals entering the military service after April 1, 1940,
which freezes their benefit credits to make them available later when the indi-
viduals are discharged from the Service. In addition, a number of other
changes are made, all of which offer increased protection to labor.

In the field of industrial accidents, the greatest importance attaches to the