Part of a worker's earned income is used to decide if the worker gets total or partial unemployment benefits. Money earned during a week can make the benefits payment amount smaller.

Eligibility for Unemployment Benefits

Unemployment benefits are given to Californians who can not work or do not earn enough money. Workers without employment and no income are unemployed and can receive total benefits. Workers earning more in a week, after a weekly allowance is taken out, than the weekly unemployment benefit amount are not unemployed. These workers are not unemployed even if they earn money without a job done for an employer, such as by doing odd jobs.

A citizen serving for five days as a juror or a witness under subpoena is unemployed during that week.

Full time workers earning income are not eligible for unemployment.

The Total Benefits Formula

Amounts earned during a week below a maximum do not change a weekly benefit. The Employment Development Department (EDD) counts the greater of $25 or 25 percent of an income as a weekly allowance. Californians earning less than $100 in a week get a $25 allowance for the week. Workers earning $100 or more get an allowance equal to 25 percent of their weekly wage. Allowances do not count in the income the unemployment office takes out of the unemployment benefit. If a worker earns $25.99 or less, they will get their total weekly benefit.

Partial Benefits

When an employer reduces a workers hours to reduce their workforce costs, and the worker loses at least 10 percent of their wages, they can apply for partial unemployment benefits. Unemployed Californians that decide to work part time and earn money until they can return to a full time regular job also can apply.

Amounts earned above a maximum are taken out of the weekly benefit. If a worker earns more than $25.99 they will have at least a penny subtracted from their weekly benefit amount.

Workers earning $100 or more can get a regular benefit payment with 75 percent of their earnings above $99.99 taken out.

Incomes, with any allowance taken out, above the weekly benefit amount make any worker ineligible for unemployment benefits.

School or Training Course

Payments earned during school or training are not like job income, but can be counted in calculating the weekly benefit. School employment programs, such as work study, are kept separate from job market employment. The student is considered unemployed. Even the student's spouse's income does not make the spouse employed when the spouse is given the opportunity to earn income by the school or a financial aid program so they can financially assist the student in paying for their cost of education. However, the work is still a kind of employment and the wages are counted as income by the unemployment office

Training done for an employer that is unpaid does not disqualify a worker for unemployment. Paid training is a kind of employment. Training payments given by the employer count as income. A worker is disqualified from unemployment if the training payments are greater than the allowance and weekly benefit added together.

Full time training paid at full wages during the beginning period of a new job in paid full time employment does count as employment.

Back Pay

Back pay given out during weeks out of work counts as wages. The amounts are wages the worker would have received if the employer had not discharged them. The number of weeks covered by the back pay is calculated by dividing the total back pay by the hourly or daily wage and then dividing the hours or days by the number of hours or the number of days in a regular work week.

Leave of Absence or Vacation

Absences from work that are not part of regular scheduled employment can count as unemployed days. A worker is not unemployed when they have agreed with the employer to return to work after the period of absence is over. A worker sent home without wages by the employer who can come back at a later time so the employer can consider them for a job again is unemployed.

Self-Employed

Workers without an employer are not called employed by the EDD. Unless they earn a full wage, they are unemployed. Independent contractors that earn less than the unemployment allowance and the benefit added together can apply for unemployment benefits.

Payable Wages

Wages that are payable but have not yet been paid do count as income. The unemployment office counts all income a worker earns in week even when they have not been paid.

Enough Income

Unemployment dollars are not wasted. Every penny earned can count as income, and, when its adds to an income greater than the amount EDD allows for basic expenses, take one penny out of the weekly benefit. As long as a workers total income, their earned wages plus the unemployment benefits, does not drop too low, the worker will receive partial benefits.

Sources:

California Employment Development Department, Total and Partial Unemployment, in Unemployment Insurance Benefit Determination Guide (online), May 2, 2011.

California Employment Development Department, Unemployment Insurance: A Guide To Benefits and Employment Services (2010).