Happy Birthday, Frances Perkins! And thank you.
By Suzan LeVine, Commissioner for the Washington State Employment Security Department
April 10, 2020
Happy 140th Birthday to Frances Perkins, architect of the New Deal , labor secretary in the FDR administration, the nation’s first female cabinet member and my personal She-ro!
Unemployment insurance — the gift she gave our nation almost 100 years ago when she served as FDR’s labor secretary and New Deal whisperer — keeps on giving.
Perkins was, as enumerated in “The Woman Behind the New Deal” by Kirstin Downey, the force who brought economic safety net programs such as Unemployment Insurance, Social Security, federal minimum wage, American Job Centers, and child labor laws to life.
Unemployment insurance — this stalwart of our economy, the sexiest unsexy economic stimulus tool we have — has been a lifeline during the COVID-19 crisis. It has pumped billions into people’s pockets and into our economy — even before Congressional action to expand it! In Washington state alone, we have delivered $150M to people’s pockets and our economy since the start of the crisis.
Her system, beautifully crafted in response to the conditions of the Great Depression, has stood the test of time.
Sort of.
The provisions added through the recent CARES act expand eligibility for unemployment insurance, increase the amount people receive, and extend how long people can receive it. These Band-Aids demonstrate where the system falls short and point to an opportunity to look at UI and the other social and economic safety nets she launched. And then we need to ask whether something designed in the 1930s meets our nation’s needs as we hurtle toward the 2030s.
The Great Depression provided the jolt and catalyst needed to examine the nature of work and the role of government in providing economic shock absorbers. As we experience the greatest loss of jobs since that time and the most precipitous loss of jobs in the history of our nation, Perkins’ birthday gives us a moment to recognize that we are having a similar shock to the system right now. The question is, can we convert the energy from that shock wave into a catalyst to inventory and understand how the essential nature of work has changed? Can we do what Perkins did 85 years ago?
We have not yet hit the economic peak of this crisis, so it’s premature to start planning. However, when (not if) we get through this, we will have an opportunity — no — an obligation to design the Frances Perkins 2.0 system: one that accounts for the social and economic safety net needs of ALL workers and businesses; one that keeps pace with the new rapid speed of innovation; one that recognizes the value of cross-state collaboration; one that recognizes that people now change jobs many times over the course of their careers; and one that uses modern technology and design to put workers and businesses at the center of the services we provide.
As the head of Washington state’s workforce agency, where we have been at the tip of the COVID-19 crisis spear, and as a member of the board of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, I can attest to the profound need to have that system in place before we enter the 2030s.
