[Duff in VT]

Could someone please answer this. The Unemployment office phone line has been busy each time I call and the website does not address this.

If I take a reduction in salary and still eventually get laid off will that reduction reduce the amount of unemployment compensenstion I receive? What is your unemployment check based on? Past weeks wages? past years? accumulation over several years?

Thanks in advance for your help !

[flu189]

An excellent set of questions. I wish I knew the answers as this may be a fact of life for me soon as well and it would be the first time. The Vt dept of labor site and others are clear as mud when it comes to providing information. It's also a major cluster that folks can't get through, some for two weeks of trying, but there is hope as that is a place where job growth is being promised, call takers. I had heard that the Commish Powden-Moulton or is it Moulton-Powden, had said that people should look at it like calling in to a game show for a prize. Maybe next she will compare it to lifeboats on a sinking ship, don't worry folks, plenty of seats as you watch the first boats with crew members casting away.

[Duff in VT]

I did get an e-mail response directing me to the "Handbook" and managed to find the info. Basically the answer is that if you reduce your wages in any way while employed, it will impact that unemployment check if you get laid off. So even though I am willing to sacrifice to try to help my employer, I will be penalized for doing so if I do become unemployed. And I never thought I'd be writing this post. Ever. Nineteen + yrs. at the same job. Was sure I would be here as long as I chose to be......

[flu189]

Originally Posted by Duff in VT

I did get an e-mail response directing me to the "Handbook" and managed to find the info. Basically the answer is that if you reduce your wages in any way while employed, it will impact that unemployment check if you get laid off. So even though I am willing to sacrifice to try to help my employer, I will be penalized for doing so if I do become unemployed. And I never thought I'd be writing this post. Ever. Nineteen + yrs. at the same job. Was sure I would be here as long as I chose to be......

Best of luck. I know the feeling, never, ever, in over thirty years of working, raising a family, getting a college degree, serving in the military, etc, have I ever had to even consider the possibility of drawing unemployment or otherwise seeking public assistance. The way I look at it is that if I have reached this stage then I can't even fathom how many others have and are going to. The amazing thing about it is that throughout all the years we have forgone extras that in the recent past seemed almost an expectation of middle class life, the vacations, the skiing, the entertainment electronics. I know it's stupid to say so, but I almost wish I would have spent the money on extras as funds put aside for the future has disappeared anyway.

[NYLIER]

My husband is on unemployment for a few months during the winter. Once the paperwork is completed, it is quite easy. You can do it over their website and it takes about one minute each week. If you don't have a date that you will be going back to work I think you have to supply the DOL with five signatures of business owners where you applied for a job. You can DM me if you want to ask him a question. I hope everything works out for you.

[MRVphotog]

The amount of your employment check is based on how much you earned during your benefit year which is from the date your laid off you go back to the last quarter, the year before that is your benefit year. Another way of puting it is the wages you earn in the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters prior to the date you filed the claim. I believe the weekly amount is based on your highest quarter and the numbers of weeks is determined by the total wages for the benefit year divided by your weekly amount.