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History

As many European countries created unemployment insurance programs in the early 20th century (beginning with Britain in 1912), Progressive Era reformers advocated for a similar policy in the United States, but to little avail. In the early 20th century, some trade unions and employers set up private unemployment insurance programs for workers, but these were only available to a small portion of the workforce. Following the onset of the Great Depression, advocates pushed Congress and state legislatures to create public unemployment insurance programs. In 1931, governors from New York, Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Connecticut organized an interstate commission on unemployment insurance. In 1932, Wisconsin passed the first public unemployment insurance program in the United States, offering 50% wage compensation for a maximum of 10 weeks, funded through a payroll tax imposed on employers.