Section 502. Wage reporting - findings and policy

The legislature hereby
  finds and declares that New York state is committed  to  developing  the
  most  efficient  and  effective  system  possible  for administering the
  unemployment insurance system which, for more than a half  century,  has
  provided  financial  support to workers who have lost their jobs through
  no fault of their own.
    Unlike all  other  states  and  territories,  which  administer  their
  unemployment  insurance  systems  pursuant  to  a  wage reporting system
  whereby employers report employee wages on a  regular  basis,  New  York
  maintains a wage request system. In order to acquire the enormous amount
  of  wage  data  necessary  to  calculate unemployment insurance benefits
  using such a system, the department is required to send out hundreds  of
  thousands  of  wage requests to employers every year. These requests are
  for information which, in large part, is submitted  by  employers  on  a
  quarterly  basis  to the statewide wage reporting system administered by
  the department of taxation and finance.
    Given the size and complexity of the unemployment insurance system, an
  increase  in  efficiency  will   necessarily   result   in   significant
  improvements   in   the  services  provided  to  benefit  claimants  and
  employers. The improvements for benefit claimants that would result from
  the implementation of a wage reporting system include  more  timely  and
  accurate entitlement and benefit rate determinations, a reduction in the
  need  to  rely  upon  a  claimant's  own  tax  and wage statements and a
  decrease in claimant overpayments which must be  recovered  at  a  later
  date.  As  for  employers, they would, for the large majority of benefit
  claims filed, no longer be required to provide employee wage  data  upon
  request, which would remove a significant employer burden as well as the
  potential  for  a  fifty  dollar penalty each time a wage request is not
  answered in a timely manner. Wage reporting would also reduce the number
  of employers incorrectly charged for benefits.
    Furthermore, the department is accountable under federal and state law
  to  measure  the  success  of  training,  employment  and   reemployment
  initiatives operated pursuant to such laws. The assessment of individual
  performance  is  the  best way to measure program quality and to develop
  program improvements. Job placement, employment  duration  and  earnings
  are  basic  outcomes  used  to  measure  such  performance.  Information
  surveys, traditionally used to collect such data, have proved to be both
  expensive and unreliable because of low response rates and faulty recall
  by those who respond. Using the statewide wage reporting system to track
  such performance outcomes  will  avoid  these  problems  and  produce  a
  reliable system of accountability while placing no additional burdens on
  employers.
    Accordingly,  for the above reasons, section one hundred seventy-one-a
  of the tax law is amended to provide the department with complete access
  to the wage reporting files maintained by the department of taxation and
  finance as the first stage in a transition to an unemployment  insurance
  system   based   upon  such  wage  reporting  files,  with  the  express
  requirement that the department shall design and operate such system  so
  that  an individual eligible for benefits under the current law would be
  eligible for the same amount of benefits under a new system  based  upon
  the  wage  reporting  files.  In  addition,  complete access to the wage
  reporting files  is  granted  for  administration  of  the  department's
  employment  security programs as well as for evaluation of the effect on
  earnings of participation in training programs with respect to which the
  department has reporting, monitoring or evaluating responsibilities.