It may come as a surprise to .. let’s say those of you in a state that has a state maximum benefit amount that hasn’t changed in years effectively allowing a state to keep the wage base low for employer taxes .. that there are states who actually change the maximum amount of unemployment pay, often yearly, on a state average of all employees weekly wages.
This means a low maximum weekly benefit is not only a burden to those who didn’t earn enough to get the max amount, but means to higher wage earners .. they will be making due with a lot less than approximately fifty percent of their weekly earning as an employee.
Example: Made 1,250 dollars a week in the state of Florida? You’ll now be bringing in the max benefit of 275 dollars .. not anywhere near the benefit amount those wages would convert to in say .. Massachusetts with a minimum weekly benefit amount of six-hundred and seventy-nine dollars.
But you also wouldn’t likely be able to collect benefits from Mass if you lived in Florida .. unless your employer paid unemployment tax on your wages .. to the State of Massachusetts.
This was actually a problem until the FUTA finally closed that loophole in 2009, that had previously allowed some unemployed people to travel to Massachusetts .. just to file a claim.
Calculate You Unemployment Pay
It’s a good idea to know how much you should get and it’s not difficult to use this state by state comparison chart published by DOLETA, to calculate a close estimate.
It best if you know which quarter of your base period was also your high earning quarter as that is the quarter used to establish the amount of benefits when your base period has enough qualifying wages outside the HQ. (A quarter is 13 weeks. Base periods vary, but they all use they typical Jan – Mar, April – June, July – Sept., Oct – Dec. as the relevant quarters.
The monetary determination (the first determination you receive) tells you how much your past wages qualify you for in weekly benefits. Sometimes a state may call this determination the award letter. but all monetary determination, like the second non-monetary eligibility determination is appealable if you disagree with what it find about good cause to voluntary quit, or a discharge for misconduct.
Although most of us could do all the mathematical computations to arrive at a much closer estimate of how much unemployment will pay simply by becoming acquainted with the
On a more serious note, if you consider BAM data about monetary qualifying mistakes made by an unemployment administrative law agency (unemployment department) you might want to scrutinize the first determination telling you how much unemployment pay you can expect to receive .. closely. (Click here to find official benefit accuracy measurements for all state unemployment programs.)
More Questions About Monetarily Qualifying for Unemployment
Question About Non-Monetary Unemployment Eligibility
Home