labor lawAdivision of labor law center

New Kentucky employers, not sure about whether or not you are liable to pay unemployment benefit taxes? Well, the state has provide us here at the blog with a comprehensive, and simple to use, list of who is, and who isn’t, liable to pay unemployment taxes. Here we go:

For for-profit businesses, meaning any company out there looking to make a buck and not labeled a nonprofit by the IRS, the cut off for you is $1500 in gross wages paid out in any calendar quarter. That means if you have paid out $1500 to one or more employees in a three month span, you are liable for unemployment taxes. Or, if you have had at least one worker earning money in 20 weeks out of a year (not necessarily the same worker, or in consecutive weeks), then you are also liable.

For agricultural businesses out there, the liability cut off is a bit different. In that case, you are liable if you have paid out $20000 in gross wages in a single calendar quarter. Or, again, on the other hand, you could be liable to pay unemployment taxes if you have had at least 20 workers getting paid on your pay roll in 20 weeks during the year.

And if you have that nonprofit designation, then you still have to pay some form of unemployment taxation—you don’t get completely off the hook. You become liable if you employ at least four workers during 20 weeks out of the year.

If you are not necessarily a new business, but instead recently bought a business, then the unemployment insurance taxation rules are slightly different as well for you. In general, you become liable as what is called a “successor” employer, which means you have a different tax rate for those employees in that new company.

Kentucky Unemployment Insurance law protects employees who are let go or whose hours are reduced through no fault of their own.  Benefits can be total or partial, and are paid through employer payments.

To be eligible to draw benefits, an employee must be available for suitable work, make a reasonable effort to obtain suitable work, and have earned at least $750 in one quarter of a base period. Other wage qualifications are spelled out by the Kentucky Department of Labor.

In part, suitable work is determined by examining the degree of risk involved to the worker’s health, safety and morals; the worker’s experience and prior earnings; the length of the unemployment and prospects of securing local work in the customary occupation and the distance of the work from the worker’s residence.

When an employee loses a job, they must immediately:

Report to the nearest Unemployment Insurance Office and present their Social Security Card.

• Register for work and file a claim for benefits.
• After filing an initial claim, file continuing claims for each week of unemployment.
• The weekly benefit rate is 1.3078 percent of the total base period wages. The range of unemployment benefits is from $39.00 to $401.00 per week.

A worker may claim partial benefits when they are still employed but are working less than normal full-time hours, and the reduced hours are due to lack of available work, and not to any other cause - such as illness, disability, vacation leave, or personal reasons.
An employee may be qualified to receive benefits if they can show that they quit with good cause attributable to the employment and there are no other eligibility issues present. They may also collect if they were fired for reasons other than misconduct connected with the work.

Claimants in some states have to serve a waiting week before they can draw benefits, but Kentucky does not. Employers must post a notice informing employees of their unemployment benefits in the workplace.