[Buzz123]

I was wrong. Since I retired from the state Employment Security Division two years ago the weekly benefit rate has gone up a little bit. In many states it is much lower than here in Nevada, and a few are higher. Surprisingly enough, California traditionally paid less than Nevada until about four or five years ago when they caught up.

The weekly benefit amount is the amount an individual is entitled to claim as benefits for one week. The minimum weekly benefit amount in Nevada is $16.00. The maximum weekly benefit amount, as of July 1, 2006, is $362.00.

It usually increases a little each year, but it looks like it didn't go up this year.
DETR - Unemployment Insurance Benefits Terms

No state pays $2000 to $2500 a month in unemployment benefits though.

When I was working for ESD I took UI claims for many movie stars, Strip entertainers, and even Broadway players. One particular Strip entertainer who owns the act, and is really self-employed, set up a corporation and made himself an employee so he could collect unemployment between jobs. I never could figure out if it was worth it to do that as they are essentially paying their own benefits.

[Buzz123]

Deleted duplicate message..

[dynimagelv]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

I was wrong. Since I retired from the state Employment Security Division two years ago the weekly benefit rate has gone up a little bit. In many states it is much lower than here in Nevada, and a few are higher. Surprisingly enough, California traditionally paid less than Nevada until about four or five years ago when they caught up.

The weekly benefit amount is the amount an individual is entitled to claim as benefits for one week. The minimum weekly benefit amount in Nevada is $16.00. The maximum weekly benefit amount, as of July 1, 2006, is $362.00.

It usually increases a little each year, but it looks like it didn't go up this year.
DETR - Unemployment Insurance Benefits Terms

No state pays $2000 to $2500 a month in unemployment benefits though.

When I was working for ESD I took UI claims for many movie stars, Strip entertainers, and even Broadway players. One particular Strip entertainer who owns the act, and is really self-employed, set up a corporation and made himself an employee so he could collect unemployment between jobs. I never could figure out if it was worth it to do that as they are essentially paying their own benefits.

But then the benefits they pay would be tax deductable I would think......

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by dynimagelv

But then the benefits they pay would be tax deductable I would think......

Not sure if a business can deduct one tax from another. Unemployment insurance is a payroll tax paid 100% by employers on their employees' wages. That is one way the Federal government keeps wages low in my opinion. When you give your employees a raise, most of them don't understand that it costs the employer more in other ways than just the amount that the worker gets. Like, I'd be happy to give you another dollar per hour but it will cost me two to do it.

Unemployment is a Federal payroll tax collected by the states from businesses, then distributed back to the states by the Feds after they take their cut and decide how much your state will need based on various stats other than unemployment benefits paid. They look at things like how many job listings did you receive from employers last year, and how many of those can you take credit for filling by those registered for work in your local offices. If for some reason a local office isn't spending their budget, people in Carson City become unglued, as they don't want their funds to be cut by the Feds. When you hear about waste in government, that has a lot to do with it. Bureaucrats are empire builders and they don't want anything taken away. And they especially fear privatization.

The money a state gets for unemployment benefits and employment services such as job training, etc. is pretty much controlled by the Feds, but each state makes it's own rules as to how it is paid as long as they follow the Federal regulations and guidelines. There are only slight differences from state to state in most cases as to how unemployment claims are filed, but a few states are different enough to give the local claims people a headache when taking an interstate claim against say, New York, or Illinois, or even California.

There, that's more than any of you ever wanted to know about UI benefits.