George Wentworth is senior counsel with the National Employment Law Project (NELP), where he has worked since 2009. He provides legal research, policy analysis, and legislative advocacy on behalf of low-income and unemployed workers in the area of unemployment insurance (UI). Wentworth has worked extensively with state organizations advocating for strong UI programs and has testified before numerous state legislatures.
Before joining NELP, Wentworth was at the Connecticut Department of Labor for thirty-five years, the last twenty years as the agency’s chief legal counsel. He was chief drafter of Connecticut’s unemployment insurance eligibility regulations and helped establish Connecticut’s work-sharing program. He also represented Connecticut as a member of the USDOL Unemployment Insurance Reform Workgroup.
Wentworth has authored and co-authored numerous papers on all aspects of UI benefits, financing and reemployment services. He has written extensively on work-sharing, including most recently, Lessons Learned: Maximizing the Potential of Work-Sharing in the United States. He has appeared on C-Span’s Washington Journal and Need to Know on PBS, and his writing has appeared in numerous publications including Politico, The Nation, The Hill and The Huffington Post. Wentworth is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University and the University of Connecticut School Of Law.
