In March, Congress passed the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (HIRE Act) to encourage businesses to hire unemployed workers.  The early results are promising: an estimated 8.1 million workers have left the unemployment rolls for private sector jobs, including 155,000 in Wisconsin alone.

Here is how it works: businesses get a payroll tax holiday for hiring a worker who was unemployed for at least 60 days. This results in a savings of 6.2 percent of each worker’s wages for the business.  Businesses that retain these workers for at least one year will receive an additional $1,000 tax credit per worker.  These breaks reward businesses that are making new hires with tax savings that can be reinvested to further grow business.  The cost of the HIRE Act was fully paid for by cracking down on offshore tax evasion.

You can learn more about the HIRE Act from the Treasury Department’s latest progress report, which is available online here: http://www.treas.gov/offices/economic-policy/HIREAct-Report_update3_10_08_10_Final.pdf.