Outdated Rules Deny Benefits Women Have Earned

UI was designed for workers with significant work attachment who lose a job through no fault of their own. Rules established by individual states define eligibility criteria, identifying who "deserves" UI, and who does not. Many of these rules prevent women from receiving benefits they have earned.

Earnings requirements exclude low-wage workers

Nearly all states require workers to meet an earnings standard in order to receive UI benefits. (7) Monetary eligibility criteria require low-wage workers to work more hours to qualify for UI benefits than high-wage workers must work. Thus, it is not surprising that low-wage workers have a much lower rate of UI recipiency than high-wage workers: In 2003, UI recipiency rates were 14 percent for unemployed low-wage workers and nearly triple that--37 percent--for higher-wage workers. (8) While a minimum earnings or work-hours requirement identifies workers with significant attachment to the labor force, standards that are too high exclude many low-wage workers with substantial work histories. Since women are a majority (59 percent) of low-wage workers, (9) this barrier to UI receipt has a disproportionate impact on women workers.

Most states count only earnings received during a 12-month "standard base period" (SBP) toward the monetary eligibility standard. The SBP is the first four of the five completed calendar quarters prior to a worker's job loss. For example, for a worker losing a job in September 2007, the SBP calculation would exclude all wages earned from July 1 through the end of the worker's employment, since that period is an uncompleted calendar. Lovell, Vicky,Williams, Claudia