Guide for employers…

http://dir.alabama.gov/docs/guides/uc_separationinformation.pdf

http://dir.alabama.gov/uc/employer.aspx#q4

For your convenieance… this will answer a lot of questions about how uneemployment is funded and how businesses are taxed.

The biggest misunderstanding with most people is that the unemployed workers create the cost.  That is NOT TRUE.  The irresponsible, uneducaed employers create the cost by not properly dismissing the employee.  Everyone complains about people “Riding Unemployment”.  Well if the employer would have handled their business properly then most claims would have even been paid.  I have 0 Experience Rating but that does not mean that I have not fired or laid anyone off.  It just means that I did it properly.  If you go to the Alabama Dept of Industrial Relations Websight, you will find a ton of information regarding the criteria for receiving unemployment benefits.

Ick - The reason that we have benefits is beacause there are plenty of businesses out there that do not terminate / lay off employees properly.

If you can’t understand the the irresponsible employers pay for the benefits then I do not know how better to explain it.  Let me try is this way.  Each employer is assigned an Experience Rating”.  The experience rating is based on three years history of paid claims.  My company’s ratio is 0 based on 0 paid claims.  That ratio puts me paying a .5% tax on all applicable wages.  Irresponsible employers with numerous paid claims have a much higher ratio.  They can pay up to 8% tax on all applicable wages.  Monies provided through the above forementioned SUTA Taxes are collected through the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations and fund Unemployment Claims.  Individual Income Tax Revenues are collected by the Alabama Dept of Revenue and are independent of funds used to provide unemployment benefits.  Thus,  increasing the tax % on the employers with higher Experience Rating Ratios will penalize just those irresponsible employers and fund the increase cost of the claims they produce.

“rolltide33 Says: There is a correct way to terminate or lay-off any employee without paying benefits”  then why have benefits at all?  why terminate a good worker, why be responsible for a bad worker? There is hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake. thats my point. That money should be in my pay check so i can pay off my stuff or save it for a rainy day. not dumb a## jo bo who can’t keep a job.  what say you solcailist now!

Tennessee could reject a portion of the $787 billion economic stimulus package out of concerns that it would force the state to raise taxes on businesses in the future.

At the National Governors Association meetings in Washington, D.C., Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) said this week that he might turn down relief for unemployed workers worth an estimated $143 million because of conditions placed on the money by Congress.

We do not penalize the employers that create this cost enough.  If we did we may actually get to the root of the problem.  There is no telling how much money could be saved if the irresponsible firng of workers was eliminated.  There is a correct way to terminate or lay-off any employee without paying benefits.  Why the state does not focus on this problem is beyond me.  there is hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake.

Wait4me - to answer your question… yes.  Workers laid off for the sole reason that their employer can no longer afford to pay them are paid unemployment benefits.  That being said, the current economic situation would be best categorized as extreem, at best.  Perhaps my previous comments were taken out of context.  Let me clarify.  It would be very difficult for most businesses to plan for the current economic conditions and current lay-offs are inevitable and unavoidable.  However, in the normal course of business void of “Extreme” economic conditions,  businesses that make sound business and staffing decisions should generally be able to weather the normal fluctuations in demand (most of which are forecastable).  Its the businesses that have and will continue to create unemployment costs during normal business that need to carry the cost on unemployment.  Many employers do not understand the responsibilty they have to protect our state from these costs.

I’ve only been laid off once during my career and it was an awful feeling.  But, ya know, I saw it coming for quiet a while.  Pink slips were being handed out on a weekly basis and I just kept hanging in there hoping things would get better.

The company I worked for pretty much gutted its production staff and was left with a bunch of managers and VP’s trying to keep the doors open.  It eventually went under altogether.

Things happen… We just have to pick ourselves up and find another way to keep the money flowing.  Government can’t do it for us.  The more it gets involved the worse it gets.