Move to Massachusetts for the best unemployment benefits
Filed under: Budgets, Career, Recession
That's it, I've got to give up the sunny life in California and move to Massachusetts, where life for the unemployed must be like living the high life.
In California, where I live and worked my entire life until being laid off in June, the unemployment rate is 7.7%. compared to the national average of 6.1%. I'm getting the maximum amount from the state in unemployment benefits, $450 a week, but it turns out I could be making double that if I lived and had worked in Massachusetts. I'm now putting my Oakland A's caps away and am on the hunt for a Red Sox hat.
"The Bay State," while much smaller geographically than "The Golden State," pays up to $900 per week, making it the highest paying state in the United States for unemployment benefits. Massachusetts has a 5.3% unemployment rate, which you'd think would be higher if employees knew how much they could collect if their companies are looking for people to go on the chopping block. Mississippi has the lowest payout, up to $210 a week, but has a 7.8% unemployment rate that is barely higher than California's. Looks like the jobless in Mississippi are getting the short end of the stick.
The eligibility criteria are decided by each state, based on how long you worked and how much money you earned before being laid off. Generally, anyone who worked full-time for a year will likely qualify. There are plenty of unemployment tips to be aware of, but one of the first shocking things I learned after losing my job was that states on average replace 50% of wages, with a cap regardless of how much I earned. I thought that after a working lifetime of paying taxes for unemployment benefits, I'd get enough to live on for a year. Not so. Florida's cap is $275 while Hawaii's is $523. Most states also provide additional funds for dependents -- not California -- usually a fixed sum such as the $25 per dependent in Massachusetts. Yet another reason to be unemployed in Massachussetts, and with a lot of kids!
Benefits last for up to 26 weeks, although the federal government added 13 weeks in an emergency measure this summer. With 10.1 million people looking for work, Boston would become a lot more crowded, at least for 39 weeks. Then back to sunny California. Go Red Sox!
Aaron Crowe is an unemployed journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Read about his job hunt at www.talesofanunemployeddad.blogspot.com
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
11-21-2008 @ 11:27AM
Don said...
Stay in CA you don't want to be associated with the state that's celebartes Ted Kennedy, Barney Frank and John Kerry as their greatest assests.
Reply
11-21-2008 @ 3:01PM
Jen said...
Oh please, at least we put our money where the constitution is. I'm not in love with ANY politician because they are basically all the same, but from our Healthcare reform laws to protected marriage rights for all people, I think the rest of the country will be following what we the PEOPLE started. Our greatest assets are not partisan political bs, it's participation. We've got our problems but who the h3ll doesn't.
11-21-2008 @ 1:52PM
FB said...
I wonder if Manny could collect if he doesn't sign with a new team?
WORRIED ABOUT TRAILER THEFT?? You need to:
http://www.carrythebigstick.com
11-26-2008 @ 3:15PM
Jon Boy said...
Did you hear?
Second Stimulus May Arrive by Christmas
http://www.curiousread.com/2008/11/second-stimulus-may-arrive-by-christmas.html
Top 5 Strategies For Surviving A Recession
http://www.curiousread.com/2008/10/top-5-strategies-for-surviving.html
11-21-2008 @ 12:40PM
matt said...
Aaron, how about trying your hand, so to speak, at freelance journalism?
Reply
11-26-2008 @ 5:47PM
junior said...
Hey Aaron, How can you be collecting unemployment and making money writing articles for the f****d up AOL.
11-22-2008 @ 7:10AM
proffordisabilities said...
Dear Don,
I used to live in Taxachusetts, and enjoyed a pretty high standard of living there, so while people complained about the taxes, the quality of education was excellent, the streets weren't torn up all the time, there was plenty of heavy duty snow removal equipment to make the best out of the winter months, the Harvard teaching hospital was there, and the University of Massachusetts teaching hospital was there in Worcester working on phharmaco and psycho therapiese for those struggling with mental illness, along with Clark Univeresity where Goddard did his famous work on liquid fuel and the first such rocket, and Freud made a stay to do some resesarch on his psychological theories. Massachusetts has more colleges per square inch than any other state, and our taxes helped them stay great, like MIT, where would we be without MIT? So much great research has come from MIT we can only be greatful it is there...And Bill Gates and his one year tour of duty at Harvard, where he learned enough to become the richest man in the world.
Boston opened the first library in America, the first school, it is a city of history wherever you walk and they have so many historic districts that are protected and subsidized to maintain their historical features.
There are so many beautiful parks, especially in Boston, but really all over Massachusetts, Cape Cod being a park down to Provincetown, and the two islands of Nantucket, a whaler's home from the past, houses with widow's walks seen everywhere, kept absolutely to their original features, and Martha's Vineyard, also old homes with widow's walks, in Edgartown, where Carly Simon still lives and James Taylor used to have a homey Greek restaurant in Vineyard Haven, where you can get some of the finest french patisseries and snails for dinner. Even in the winter Martha's Vinyard is perfectly beautiful.
Clean streets, clean parks, clean highways. So why don't I go baack? My husband got a job down here in Florida, so...and suppose I was a millionaire or billionaire, it would be a really good place to be because of the state 's protection of the rich against taxes, it's cut, cut, cut for the rich, and our new governor says, after last years 15% hike on state colleges and universssssssssssssities he mandated, now he's gone and done it for the next three consecutive years; so what is 1,15 X 1.15 X 1.15 x 1.15, anybody out there have a calculator?
Family Day Cares are required to provide not only a safe and healthy environment, nutricious meals and snacks, but also education with a preschool curriculum which the children must learn, and you must be licensed and then you are subject to unscheduled monthly visits by the nutritiionist, the environmental specialist, and the curriculum specialist and pass to maintain your licensed status. Where else can you say they have such high standards foro a Family Day Care? Oh, I know because I did it for a couple of years while my own child was preschool.
The Health Department is very vigorous to give out necessary shots for school, travel and feared approaching deseaases., and there are enough providers so that you do not have to take the day off to get services.
There is train service between Springfield (which takes you north to Montreal, or south to NYC) and Boston, stopping in the city of Worcester, which has fabulous bus transportation so when I visit Mom I don't need to rent a car at all. And there is also daily bus transportation into the city of Boston for commuters, who don't want to drive in and spend the money for parking.
Both Worcester and Boston are havens for culture, history, symphony, opera, ballet (Boston), art museums, an armory museum (Worcester), Science Museums, Shakespeare Troupes (Boston), Hayden and Handel Society (Boston), Broadway shows (Boston, their first stop beforre New York), and an assortment of travelling musical shows for the younger generation. In Boston, you can walk down the sreets of Louisa May Alcott (Little Women). T.S.Eliot (The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock) , Sylvia Plath and others, and up at Walden Pond Thoreau, over in Salem, Hawthorn (The Scarlet L, The House of the Seven Gables), Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin (early), John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John F. Kennedy and his Presidential Museum. Pope John Paul visited in Boston around 1981 or 82 I can't quite remember, but I was there with my husband and it seemed all of Boston turned out and the famous Boston Gardens with their Swimming Swans, and the entire Boston Commons was wall to wall people. And the St. Patrick's Day Parade, etc. There is a lot of religion there, too. Oh, and the unemployment benefits are the highest in the country.
And so why don't I go back there? My husband was assigned to the Florida Office of the company, so...but I kept teaching my son myself, even as he went to school, and, well he knew how to read when he was 3and could count to 100 then, too, and he knew how to add at 4 and subtract at 5 and multiply at 6, 1st grade, and they took those tests and he got 99th percentile on everything, and I asked his teacher isn't there some kind of program for scorers like this, and just because their school (in Florida, now, the FCAT state) didn't have a giifted program, she lied to me and said oh, that just means that he got 99 on all the tests, and I said ok, but later on I discussed this with the counselor and got the truth, and her only thoughts were that my son had friends in that school for a couple years now, so what did I really want to do. So I just kept teaching him at home. A bad set of choices. It takes only one gifted teacher for a school to offer gifted. But you know Florida cut, cut, cut, you know those millionaires and billionaires need that extra money.
You know Florida is 48th in the country on achievement, and 49th in teacher salary. Well, I'll tell you last Friday, ;;;I came walking into the living room with the TV on aaand there was this man ehind a desk and he was asking this man in a first row seat of many rows So you say you are a billionaire, and the man aswered like yes, sire, I am a billionaire, and the he said, so you are paying 15% income taaaaaaaxes is that right, and he said yes, 15%, and then iin all the chaos sof llosing jobs and homes how do you feel about this, and the man said Fine. FINE.
A billionaire paying 15% income taaxes, and corporations getting tax cuts and $7
Reply
11-26-2008 @ 3:33PM
Oscar said...
You are so right.Florida is a garbage as a State goes.Well what can you expect from a State that is like a hemorroid hanging of the a** of the USA (georgia).Enough is enough.Lousy politicians and worse illegal aliens in the nation.I live in Miami Beach and hate every minute of it, but obligations are obligations.Also worse State in civil rights.Every anti you can think off thrives in the Sunshine State.For its record Florida should be given back to Spain.Those spaniards knew what they were doing when they give it to us.We should sue them.
11-26-2008 @ 5:28PM
scott said...
you must not have really lived in taxachussetts. the roads are terrible, the plowinging lousy, and the schools worse. i am 53, and lived in framingham,ma. all my life. you must be joking!
11-26-2008 @ 5:45PM
BRUCE said...
SURE ARE LONG WINDED.... MUST BE FROM THE STATE THAT BRAGS ABOUT THEIR 'HIGHER EDUCATION' STATUS... BUT THE TRUTH BE KNOWN.... VERY FEW FROM YOUR STATE USE THOSE UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. THE HIGH SCHOOL DROP OUT RATE IS THE HIGHEST IN THE COUNTRY. ROXBURY....50%. NICE TRY THOUGH.
I LEFT THE KENNEDY STATE SHORTLY AFTER TEDDY KILLED THAT GIRL IN HIS CAR. I HAVEN'T LOOKED BACK SINCE. SAY 'HI' TO BARNEY FRAGGNK
12-02-2008 @ 4:42PM
Pam said...
Thanks for your comments about my home state, Massachusetts. I now have lived in New Hampshire for five years, and notice a tremendous difference in all benefits from this state compared to Massachusetts.
Yes, everyone calls MA " taxachusetts", but those taxes pay for all the programs needed to help unemployed, poor, and now, middle class population of that state. Since living in NH, my home taxes have gone from $2100.00 in MA, to $6500.00 in NH.
NH has no state tax, but they also do not pay much for, or have many programs here. Unemployment benefits are low here, and I know, because I was laid off in August. I receive $280 weekly. Our unemployment rate is high, and only today, jobs available were listed at about 820 for the whole state. Luckily, I have had a call back for my job for Feb., because the chance of getting a job locally, that pays more than $7hr is next to impossible.
Living in MA. when my children were small, their father left, and I had no income to support them. I was able to get on a housing program where the state paid 75% of my rent. I was also able to go to college paid by the government and have my youngest put in daycare for $5 a week while doing so. If it weren't for the fine programs in MA. I never would have been able to get off welfare and support my family.
Massachusetts has some of the finest hospitals in the world. People come from all over the world to our hospitals. I think that also says alot for my home state.
My husband travels 90 miles a day to his job in MA. He works for Raytheon, one of the largest contractors of military work in the states. Jobs in NH pay, on average, 2/3rds less than MA. So all things are relative. Poor state, poor pay and benefits. I'd much rather pay higher taxes and know I have benefits to fall back on, than pay no state tax, and get "nothing" paying exorbitant property taxes, registration taxes, and mortgage tax stamp fees. We moved here because of the lower price of homes. But, we had to sacrifice the great benefits we received in Massachusetts.
11-22-2008 @ 4:17PM
Roy Wassner said...
I have my own Business, it pay more then unemployment benefits pay me, Praise God, Thank you Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Roy Wassner
Your Success Is My Success
http://www.myhomebusinesspays.com/40581105
Reply
11-24-2008 @ 6:02PM
skyler said...
That source is incorrect. Though I think it is still the highest, the maximum benefit pay rate allowable by Massachusetts state law is actually $628 per week, not $900.
I should know, I just received my benefit determination letter in that exact amount.
Reply
11-30-2008 @ 10:03AM
gary said...
Maybe you didn't make enough money to reach the highest threshold.
11-26-2008 @ 2:09PM
Steven said...
Aaron, I hope you got some rent money for this article since it is on a nationwide web site. You should seriously consider freelancing. As for me, I had to get by on $350 per week of unemployment in Texas, which is the maximum here.
Reply
11-26-2008 @ 2:35PM
everet said...
steven:you poor thing, me& wifr&teen daughter :live: on 1225 S.S. a month i just cant feel sorry for you,OH YES do you smoke,drink???? thought so.. sigh!!!!!!
11-26-2008 @ 2:20PM
bob said...
Get a job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply
11-26-2008 @ 2:36PM
Cheryl said...
To Bob:
Do you know how many people who have gotten layed off have done nothing but try to find a job, anywhere. Locally, where our unemployment rate is 7.7% McDonald's is not even hiring because all of the earlier unemployed grabbed those jobs. Your talking about people with college educations, years of experience in their field, working at where ever they can because they can not stand being unemployed. Even the temp agencies have put notes on their doors letting people know they do not have jobs available. Trying to move somewhere that may have jobs is impossible as that costs money and making $275 a week does not cut it. So to Bob, get a life!!!!!
Reply
11-26-2008 @ 5:53PM
Aushra said...
I agree with you Cheryl. Some people (like Bob) are just ignorant and do not realize how many people have lost thier jobs recently. I am one of them. I was fortunate enough to have found a part time job but, would love to be full time. There are people out there that do abuse the system but people like Bob shouldn't just assume that if someone doesn't have a job, they are lazy.
To say "Get a job!" is easier said than done in these uncertain times. Bob is obviously fortunate enough to have a job.
11-26-2008 @ 2:42PM
Laurag said...
I too lived my entire life in California, and lost my mortgage job in March of 08. I am still unemployed and could not find work in CA so I've moved in with family in Central Oregon. $450.00 a week is next to impossible to live on and doesn't come close to 1/2 of my weekly earnings when I was employed. Mass. sounds like it has a grip on what it costs to live in this country.
Reply