Employee-Paid

Michigan employers are likely to save money on unemployment insurance and worker's compensation under changes signed into law Monday by Gov. Rick Snyder. Critics, though, said the moves could make it more difficult for injured and jobless workers to get the benefits they need.

With neither side showing signs of yielding, a bitterly divided House debated a Republican effort Tuesday to force the Senate to negotiate a payroll tax cut and jobless benefits that expire on New Year's Day.

House Republicans will stick to their insistence that a bill extending a payroll tax cut and jobless benefits include language speeding work on a controversial oil pipeline, Speaker John Boehner said Friday.

State workers hired after Jan. 1 no longer will be eligible to receive state health care coverage when they retire and long-term employees covered by the state's defined benefit pension will have to contribute 4 percent of their pay to keep that benefit under bills signed Thursday by Gov. Rick...

Congressional negotiations over a bill extending a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits can begin as soon the Senate rejects a version the House approved despite a White House veto threat, the Senate's top Democrat said Wednesday.

House Republicans unveiled a bill Friday renewing the Social Security payroll tax cut and extending but trimming unemployment benefits but barreled toward a showdown with President Barack Obama by including language jumpstarting work on a controversial oil pipeline.

President Barack Obama vowed to delay Congress' year-end vacation as well as his own Thursday for "as long as it takes" to extend Social Security payroll tax cuts and long-term jobless benefits, his second challenge in as many days to conservative Republicans.

House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday he's confident that congressional Republicans are ready to move ahead with legislation that would continue a payroll tax cut.