American Rescue Plan Act of 2021: Employee Benefits Provisions

On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed H.R. 1319, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) passed by Congress one day earlier, into law. ARPA is the sixth major COVID-19 response legislation to become law since the spring of 2020. ARPA includes provisions related to unemployment benefits as well as multi-employer pension plans.

Specific employee benefits provisions of the new law include:

• Continues $300 in extra weekly benefits through September 6, 2021. These benefits were set to expire on March 14, 2021.
• Makes the first $10,200 in unemployment benefits tax-free in 2020 for taxpayers making less than $150,000 per year.
• Fully subsidizes the cost of health insurance premiums for workers through September 30, 2021 (i.e., COBRA).
• Creates a fund for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) fund to assist certain struggling multiemployer plans to cover benefits due through plan years ending in 2051.

The comprehensive ARPA also addressed funding and programs related to vaccines, school re-openings, small business funding, and state and local financial support, and health insurance, among other provisions. Special recovery programs aimed at economic sectors, such as the restaurant and live events venue sectors, were also included. An overview of ARPA provided by House Democrats can be found here (PDF). A more extensive summary of ARPA provided by the law firm Holland + Knight can be found here (PDF).

PRINTING United Alliance is committed to helping the industry learn how ARPA will affect the industry and member companies, their employees, and their customers. Please see our ARPA Break Out blog posts by topic to learn more. We will continue to update member companies with details of the implementation of ARPA as they roll out in order to help the printing industry best understand the new law’s applicability and requirements.

• American Rescue Plan Act Becomes Law
• American Rescue Plan Act of 2021: Targeted Assistance to Key Print Verticals
• American Rescue Plan Act of 2021: Small Business Funding
• American Rescue Plan Act of 2021: Tax Policy

In this article, Lisbeth addresses the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021. More information about ARPA can be found at www.sgia.org or reach out to Lisbeth should you have additional questions specific to how these issues may affect your business: llyons@printing.org.

To become a member of PRINTING United Alliance and learn more about how PRINTING United Alliance subject matter experts can assist your company with services and resources such as those mentioned in this article, please contact the Alliance membership team: 888-385-3588 / membership@printing.org.