Section 501. Public policy of state  


Latest version.
  • As a guide to the interpretation and
      application of this article, the public policy of this state is declared
      to be as follows: Economic insecurity due to unemployment is  a  serious
      menace  to  the health, welfare, and morale of the people of this state.
      Involuntary unemployment is therefore a subject of general interest  and
      concern  which requires appropriate action by the legislature to prevent
      its spread and to lighten its burden, which  now  so  often  falls  with
      crushing  force  upon  the  unemployed  worker  and  his  family.  After
      searching examination of the effects of widespread  unemployment  within
      the  state,  the  joint  legislative committee on unemployment appointed
      pursuant to a joint resolution adopted  April  ninth,  nineteen  hundred
      thirty-one,   reported   to   the   legislature  that  "the  problem  of
      unemployment can better be met by the so-called compulsory  unemployment
      insurance  plan than it is now handled by the barren actualities of poor
      relief assistance backed by compulsory  contribution  through  taxation.
      Once  the facts are apprehended this conclusion is precipitated with the
      certainty of a chemical reaction. " Taking into account  the  report  of
      its  own  committee, together with facts tending to support it which are
      matters of common knowledge, the legislature therefore declares that  in
      its  considered  judgment the public good and the well-being of the wage
      earners of this state require the enactment  of  this  measure  for  the
      compulsory  setting  aside  of  financial  reserves  for  the benefit of
      persons unemployed through no fault of their own.