Currently, nearly 700,000 people in Florida receive unemployment benefits. For employers such as Kevin Rusk, owner and founder of the Titanic Brewery and Restaurant in Coral Gables, it comes with a cost.

Rusk is one of the thousands of business owners statewide who soon will receive notice that his unemployment insurance premiums are rising — in fact, skyrocketing.

The minimum rate for employers with few claims, which was $8, is leaping to more than $100 per employee. That has left business owners like Rusk with sticker shock.

"In my business, if I said I was going to increase the price of a burger," Rusk says, "I can increase it 5 percent, 10 percent, you know? They increased it 1,200 percent, and that's just a sour pill for most people to swallow."

Read or listen to it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • Taxes • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • Politics in General • State Government

1. Chris wrote: Well I’m not in favor of raising taxes but the question for this restaurant owner is what percentage is unemployment insurance as part of his overall costs?  My guess is practically none at all, so increasing from 8 to 100 will not change things all that much. December 21, 9:59 am | [comment link]

2. Jim the Puritan wrote: Florida, you should count your blessing.  That’s next to nothing.  Here in Hawaii, we have been informed that our per employee cost of unemployment insurance is going from $90 to $1,070. http://tinyurl.com/yjo6as4 This is unsustainable.  A lot of companies here in the next couple of months will be making the decision to:  (1) lay off more employees to counterract the insurance hike; (2) cut all salaries by the amount of the unemployment tax increase; or (3) shut the doors. This economic depression is not over, not by a long shot. December 21, 1:26 pm | [comment link]

Registered members must log in to comment.