I Want to Work. I Don’t Want to Lose Unemployment

How You Can Earn Money and Not Affect Your Payout, State by State

Dear Unemployed Gig Workers,

Yesterday was the last day of the $600 weekly stimulus. Less money, mo’ problems? Did you know you may be able to earn gig money without losing your benefits? Get this! Each state is different, but almost all of them (sorry New York) allow you to earn a certain dollar amount or percentage of your weekly base pay from gig work without affecting your unemployment benefits.

Here’s how it works for us here in Illinois:

You can earn up to 50% of your weekly benefit amount (WBA) without affecting the payout at all.

The maximum WBA is $484. This means if you are receiving $484/wk in unemployment benefits, you can also take on a gig and earn up to $242/wk with no harm and no foul (as long as you are honest when certifying. Always be honest). This means your payout for that week will be $484 from unemployment and $242 from your gig for a grand total of $726. Way to go you for getting back to work!

But wait! It might be tricky to earn exactly $242 from your gigs that week. What happens if you earn $287? Never fear. This is completely viable and you will not lose your benefits for the rest of your unemployment term. In this scenario, the amount that exceeds 50% will be subtracted from the unemployment benefit payout. In other words (or numbers rather):

$287-$242 = $45

Unemployment payout of $484-$45 = $439

Now put it together. Your total gig earnings plus unemployment benefit remains the same:

$287 + $439 = $726

I know what this can feel like. It can feel a lot like working for free. I’ve found it helpful to flip that idea on its head. It’s the same amount of money, it’s just coming from different places. The more we can get ourselves back to work, the more productive we can be. It feels good, and we are part of the community again. We are also building toward our own livelihood and taking back control of what is coming in as opposed to watching the dollars disappear like they did yesterday.

Illinois has a pretty generous allowance for working while on unemployment. You can find a breakdown state by state in this document beginning on page 3–17 under Monetary Entitlement.

Here are some highlights:

• Many states, like Texas, California and Colorado allow 25% of the WBA before reducing benefits.
• Massachusetts allows for 33% of the WBA, but your max allowance is really high if you were earning a ton when you filed.
• Other states like Florida allow for a dollar amount. $58 (or, as the rule goes, 8 x Federal Minimum Wage) in Florida, $50 in Virginia, and only $5 in Washington state.
• States like Oregon will disregard the greater of two options. In Oregon, it is $112 or 33% of WBA, whichever is greater.

I’m no legal expert, but if you get cross-eyed looking at this document and want me to look into your state, list the state in the comments and I will see what I can find. You can also google your state unemployment handbook for all kinds of details and information. If you are in Illinois, these folk have been known to offer cheap or free advice to those in the arts.

Let’s stick together and help each other out. Have more advice or experience regarding your state unemployment? Want me to dig deeper to look into your questions? Comment and we will do our best to slog through it together!