For example, a full-time year-round salaried employee will be paid for 2080 hours per year. A $263 unemployment tax translates to approximately $0.13 per hour. For a worker with a hourly wage of $20, absorbing the full cost of the unemployment tax would represent approximately one-half of one-percent of their hourly take-home pay. Even for a minimum wage employee this would represent less than 2% of that employee’s hourly salary.

Any firm that claims the unemployment tax prevents them from hiring additional employees probably isn’t in the financial condition to hire new employees to begin with. This is a naked anti-tax push, using the specter of increased unemployment to mask the simple fact that businesses just don’t want to pay their fair share for the unemployment system.