Daily News

Cost of Unemployment Insurance to Fall

BOSTON — Massachusetts employers will save money on unemployment insurance under legislation signed by Gov. Deval Patrick Thursday as part of a compromise to raise the state’s minimum wage. The new law freezes the rates for the insurance this year at 2013 levels, and lowers them slightly in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Currently, Massachusetts has the fourth-highest unemployment-insurance cost, with companies spending $714 per employee, on average. Under the new law, the minimum wage in Massachusetts will increase to $11 per hour by 2017, from $8.