PA unemployment quit job not as anticipated (receive, apply, claim)

[marper68]

Ok so I quit my job recently. I sold cars for a living I made $50,000 last year doing this. I took a job closer to home and the job has not worked out. The manager told me his lowest paid guy made $36,000 and the highest paid made $80,000 considering I sold cars last year I expected to make close to the same but it has not been like that. This dealership has hired way to many salesman and I rarely get customers. I have averaged a whopping $280 a week for working 50 hours a week. My bills are to high. I have $1400 in bills a month. My weekly benefit is $570. Here is what the PA unemployment handbook says:

Voluntary Quit

*Job not the same as what was anticipated - To be eligible, the claimant must show that the monetary expectations of employment were not fulfilled through no fault of the claimant. For example, a claimant takes a job selling vacuum cleaners because he/she has been told he/she could make $50,000 per year through commission sales. After three weeks, the claimant quits the job because he/she was unable to make any sales and the personal expenses exceeded the income, thereby warranting the allowance of benefits.

Can I get unemployment? I had to quit to find work that I can live off of.

[Chyvan]

You need to go for the low hanging fruit. 280/50 is less than federal minimum wage.

You can argue it's not as presented, and that's great and you should, but the proof and credibility determinations are tricky. With a less than minimum wage job, you can prove it with paystubs from the company (lots of credibility), timesheets or attendance logs (lots of credibility), and you only need make a token effort to ask for minimum wage. That it is a "good cause" quit.

Also when you have low wages, you should try to make a case that the 'time, distance, or cost" was out of line for the amount of money received.

This is an example of what can happen when you go for the more complex reason to get UI: EDD Debit Card = Benefit Approval?. As you can see from that thread, we gave great suggestions. At the hearing when the employer stipulated the wages had fallen, the claimant didn't feel it necessary any longer to present the pay stubs and is attempting to go to the board of review to make that case, but it's going to be a much harder sell because the pay stubs could have been presented at the first hearing, and might have made all the difference. The ALJ applied a pretty hash version of "adjusting a grievance," and that's why you want to go from easy to hard: Less than minimum wage, "time, distance, cost," and then not as promised.


You never know what reason the Deputy or ALJ will accept, so you go for all applicable reasons that you can make a case for. Because once the record is established, you probably won't get a do over.

[Ariadne22]

You found your answer in the PA Handbook.

*Job not the same as what was anticipated - To be eligible, the claimant must show that the monetary expectations of employment were not fulfilled through no fault of the claimant.

It isn't any more complicated than that. Apply for benefits immediately. PA will investigate. Expect your most recent employer to contest.

[myrc60]

Expect this to delay payments. For how long? No one really knows.

Originally Posted by Ariadne22

Expect your most recent employer to contest.