Am I eligible for unemployment?

March 15, 2018 12:10 PM

Am I eligible for unemployment? I have a full-time job during the week, but I just got laid-off/fired from my part-time weekend job.

I just got fired from a weekend waiting gig with the email "I am making some staffing adjustments due to a slowdown in our brunch business. As a result, I have taken you off the schedule for the 18th. Since you will be unavailable the following two weekends I have no choice but to end your employment". The 'following two weekends' referenced were for a vacation I am taking that had already been approved. Pretty sure my boss was just making up excuses because we butt heads.

I ultimately don't care except that the money I brought in I was using to help pay off my student loans, so it was helpful, but it won't make or break me. I will probably look for another similar gig, but in the meantime, am I eligible to file for unemployment at all? I work full-time at a reasonably well-paying job during the week, so does the fact that I make a decent salary there make me ineligible to file for unemployment?

I can't seem to find the answer online anywhere, and when I went ahead to set up my claim, there were questions that I didn't know how to answer really bc they didn't exactly apply to my situation. I can't seem to get a human on the phone to discuss this with.

Specifics:
Live and work in New York City.
My dates of employment for this job were August 27, 2017 to today when I received the above email.
I don't know exactly what my gross income was from this job during this time (waiting to receive a pay stub with this year's YTD), but my take-home pay was $2870 during the whole period of employment there, and I should receive a bit more for my last paycheck tomorrow).

So, do you think I'm eligible to file? Or do you know of a human I could talk to to ask this question?

Thanks!

posted by greta simone to Work & Money (12 answers total)

Best answer: I think the fact that you have a full time job already would prevent you from collecting unemployment in the first place. Unemployment is more for people who have no work at all.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:16 PM on March 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I am not an employment lawyer, but I’m very sure you need to be unemployed to claim unemployment insurance. You are not unemployed. Therefore you are not eligible.
posted by cyphill at 12:16 PM on March 15, 2018

This might help you. The question "Can I file a claim if I lost my full-time work, but still work part-time?" is the opposite of what you're asking, but the answer seems to imply that while you can receive partial benefits while working, you are only eligible if you a) work less than four days a week, and b) earn $435 or less in a week. If your full time job pays more than $435 a week or you work four or more days a week I assume you wouldn't be eligible.

If you want to talk to a real person who's knowledgeable about this, though, the NY Department of Labor has contact info here.
posted by brook horse at 12:17 PM on March 15, 2018 [5 favorites]

Best answer: No, you are employed. Unemployment is for people without jobs.

I believe the only way to receive unemployment while working is if your weekly unemployment benefits are more than you make working. For example, your unemployment is $400 and your job only pays $200.
posted by shoesietart at 12:22 PM on March 15, 2018

Response by poster: I tried calling that number Brook Horse, but it doesn't connect you with a human unfortunately.

But it looks like I'm not eligible and that's fine.

Sounds like it really sucks for people that work multiple jobs though--seems like they have no recourse if they lose one. That was me for many years.
posted by greta simone at 12:27 PM on March 15, 2018

Best answer: It is the case that you can't claim unemployment, greta simone, because of the income limits, but it is not generally true that if you have two jobs and lose one, you can't claim unemployment. You do not need to be totally unemployed to file.

People who experience partial unemployment are eligible for partial benefits. And because the amount of the benefit is smaller, they typically are available for a longer period.

My experience is with New York; I am not sure about receiving partial benefits in other states.
posted by layceepee at 12:39 PM on March 15, 2018 [9 favorites]

Best answer: At the risk of this turning into Chatfilter, I had a similar experience in WA State: I lost my FT job, kept my PT one, and was able to claim partial benefits because of the PT job. I also, IIRC, was exempt from the mandatory job search.
posted by spinifex23 at 12:53 PM on March 15, 2018

I live in California and am eligible to claim unemployment benefits on a reduction in work hours. This isn't the same as losing a second job, and YMMV based on location and many other factors, but I'd guess you are eligible for unemployment. And for what it's worth, there's no harm in filing--it's not against the law to file even if you're not sure of your eligibility! That's how your eligibility will be determined in the first place! It may take a couple hours the first time you do it, but will likely be easier if you ever have to do it again. That said, my guess is that if you're approved, the amount you receive will be miniscule because your income from FT work will already be so high, relatively speaking.
posted by tapir-whorf at 3:53 PM on March 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

When you actually file for unemployment, the form itself is a test for whether you qualify or not. So start filing - or just download form instructions - and you will have your answer. This can be done online and it's not very complicated.
posted by rada at 4:19 PM on March 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I started to file a claim but there were certain questions that were unanswerable given my situation. Hence my question here.
posted by greta simone at 6:01 PM on March 15, 2018

I've been on unemployment in multiple states (lucky me!). I don't think you are eligible because the whole point of unemployment is that you are being paid while you look for work instead of working. If you have a full-time job, you can't be looking for work full time.

In some states, you get partial benefits if you are earning less than the benefit amount. This is true in New York State (at least as of many years ago) and I was able to freelance a day or two per week and collect partial unemployment. Every state does it differently, but if I am remembering the NY weekly claim process correctly, you would need to report the actual number of days you worked per week. You have a full-time job, so you would have to report you worked five days and thus you would be eligible for $0 every week.
posted by AppleTurnover at 8:45 PM on March 15, 2018

I think the deal with people with multiple jobs is: in most cases, people with multiple jobs have all part-time jobs, so if they lose one job, that bumps them down to working less than 40 hours a week. So if they filed, they would get an unemployment grant that would make up the difference (so for instance, if they had two part-time jobs, and lost one and were only working 26 hours a week at the other one, their unemployment grant would be like "so you worked 26 hours this week, here's the equivalent of the other 14 hours").

In your case, you have a full time job and lost the extra part-time job. So the unemployment office would see that you're already working a full 40 hours at the full-time job, and they would be like, "....well, you're making a full 40 hours, what do you want from us?"

They're only trying to catch you up to 40 hours a week. If you are doing that on your own, you don't need them.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:28 AM on March 16, 2018