When You Are Entitled to Unemployment Compensation
by
Attorney Amy DelPo
Find out whether you'll be able to collect unemployment benefits.
Even if you lose your job, you'll always have unemployment compensation to fall back on, right? Not necessarily. Former employees are eligible for unemployment benefits only if they are out of work through no fault of their own. This rule works differently depending on whether the employee quit, was laid off, or was fired.
Because unemployment compensation is administered by each state, whether you are eligible for benefits also depends on your specific circumstances and your state’s rules.
If an Employee Quits
An employee who quits or resigns from a job will be eligible for benefits only if he or she left for "good cause" -- that is, the worker would have suffered some sort of harm or injury from staying put. Put another way, you are eligible for benefits only if any reasonable person in your job situation would have quit.
Even if you think you had a good reason to leave a job, that doesn't necessarily mean you had good cause in the eyes of the law. For example, it might be a good career strategy to leave a job that doesn’t offer opportunities for advancement, but it won’t make a worker eligible for unemployment benefits. Similarly, simple job dissatisfaction is a good reason to quit that doesn't add up to good cause.
In some states, former employees are eligible for benefits if they leave a job for compelling personal reasons -- for example, to relocate when a spouse gets a distant job or because a family emergency requires the worker to be home. In other states, the reasons must be related to the job.
If an employee leaves a job because of intolerable working conditions (such as being sexually harassed) or because he or she was told to resign or face being fired, most states allow the worker to collect unemployment compensation. Similarly, leaving a job because it poses a serious threat to your health or safety is usually good cause.
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