r/UnemploymentWA • u/SoThenIThought_ Admin for WEBA.Law, WA Unemployment Benefits • Jan 02 '22
Discussion Politics Chat
Unemployment eligibility criteria for
California: $1,300+ in a single quarter, or if not, $900 in a quarter, and a total of $2,025
Colorado: Earned $2,500 in base year
Washington: 680hrs
Effect on minimum wage
California: $15+, so $1,300/15 = 87hrs
Colorado: $12.32, so $2,500/12.32 = 202 hrs
Oregon: $12.50, so $1000/ 12.50 = 80hrs
Washington: $13.69, so 680 X 13.69= $9,309
While our maximum weekly benefit amount is now $929 -which is more than California's maximum of $450- to me this is further confusing because generally the cost of living in California is higher (on the state average not by much but in major metropolitan areas, significant)
Why is the minimum criteria burden still at 680, clearly on or before September 4th there should have been a Washington state legislative bill reducing the threshold, I would argue to something more similar to the other adjoining states, otherwise if there continues to be a labor shortage and it is extremely difficult to get unemployment in Washington state that will likely contribute to an exodus from that state.
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u/llamakiss Jan 03 '22 edited Jan 03 '22
680 hours worked anywhere in the US in a calendar year, but only a minimum of 1 hour worked in WA to qualify for WA benefits. So someone could work for the $2.15 tipped minimum wage for 678 total hours in a calendar year (17 weeks/yr), work a partial day in WA and get WA unemployment. The minimum is very low when you look at it that way.
ETA detail.
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u/SoThenIThought_ Admin for WEBA.Law, WA Unemployment Benefits Jan 03 '22
Oh, you are describing a combined wage claim, I don't disagree but this applies to a pretty small amount of claimants
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u/llamakiss Jan 03 '22
A small number of WA residents, not a small number of people who work in multiple states. WA pays the highest so people file here intentionally.
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u/SoThenIThought_ Admin for WEBA.Law, WA Unemployment Benefits Jan 03 '22
I agree entirely
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u/llamakiss Jan 03 '22
It would be interesting to look at the UI tax structure on employers state by state as well. Do WA employers pay more since the UI benefits are higher? How do common complaints about WA tax structure play out for businesses vs places that have high income taxes like SFO or NYC?
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u/SoThenIThought_ Admin for WEBA.Law, WA Unemployment Benefits Jan 03 '22
Do WA employers pay more since the UI benefits are higher?
At least during the pandemic this was not true because there was a ton of provisions to allow companies to either defer the tax increase, to erase it or to apply for a waiver to erase it
WA tax structure play out for businesses vs places that have high income taxes
With regard to taxation for claims, is my understanding that the benefit fund replenishment via taxation for claims is totally unrelated to the charging and collection of taxation for income, and that the fund for benefit claims is not at all related or connected to the charging and collections of taxation for income (... If that is what you are referring to)
During the pandemic this was a section of information that I was actively hunting down and deleting off of the sub, but now that the enrollment window for Pua has ended; I was very concerned that Organized groups were going to be fraudulently filing Pua claims in Washington, and using falsified information to prove their weekly benefit amount to the maximum. One active Pua claim in Washington is worth three or four in California
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u/llamakiss Jan 03 '22
IMO from a zoomed out perspective, it makes sense that the highest paid benefit amount requires a higher bar to get those benefits.
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u/SoThenIThought_ Admin for WEBA.Law, WA Unemployment Benefits Jan 03 '22
it makes sense that the highest paid benefit amount requires a higher bar to get those benefits.
Except that the max/min benefit amount calculation is not related to nor correlated nor causal to the eligibility requirements. They both happen to be high.
Certainly the way the maximum and minimum benefit amount is calculated is fairly well substantiated.
Added 6/19 Expect Updated Max/Min UI Weekly Benefit Amounts after Start of FY 2022, 7/1/2021
(For claimants who worked solely in washington, the vast majority:)
Whereas, solely an hour threshold and no monetary threshold, and exceptionally High hour threshold, largely necessitates that the applicant be a W-2 employee, and that they have worked a lot in Washington State.
Imagine somebody who is fleeing a domestic violent situation and who has only worked in Washington for a few weeks and then had to quit because of the same domestic violence situation. Under the criteria for other states they would probably be eligible, but not in Washington.
In this instance it is hard to say that with equity and good conscious it is a good idea for this person to be ineligible, that on the whole the state, esd, their employer and them are better off having the claim not be eligible.
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u/SoThenIThought_ Admin for WEBA.Law, WA Unemployment Benefits Jan 03 '22 edited Jan 03 '22
Unemployment insurance recipients ARE required to be W2 employees
Yes. I know I agree. except in the instance of certain gig economy companies who were included due to a ruling by the attorney General.
In the past 15 years there has been an enormous increase in 1099 work and workers.
When I said "necessitates that the applicant be a W-2 employee, and", I am saying that it is simply not enough to have work thousands of hours in Washington State, that it must be done through a W-2 employer, is Imho an unbelievably myopic view of the contributions of so many people who are already working without any protections.
Even before any means testing for eligibility, the thresholds and criteria really apply to a time and a place and an economy and a culture that I believe has passed; but this is the nature of administration and laws: there is only an appetite to change them once they are sufficiently archaic. In that regard, call me hungry.
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u/llamakiss Jan 03 '22
Unemployment insurance recipients ARE required to be W2 employees (there were confusing differences to federal pandemic specific unemployment programs though, but those ended).
DV situations are specifically different, set those aside from other comparisons.
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u/drossdragon Jan 02 '22
The primary reason it is set this way is because so many of our State legislators believe UI is a handout that should only be given to certain people.
And the only reason our current min/max benefit is so high right now is because the formula used to set it got out of balance with all the lower paid workers not working in 2020. It was reset based on the salaries of people who did not lose their jobs and could work from home.
No one is incentivized to fix this because they all think this is a once in a lifetime event.