Economic Justice and Employment Rights
Access to Unemployment Insurance
Unemployment insurance benefits are a crucial piece of the financial safety net for many workers and their families. These benefits are intended to provide temporary income support to workers who lose their jobs, yet women are disproportionately disqualified from benefits because of outdated eligibility rules.
Historically, individuals have been eligible for unemployment if they become unemployed through no fault of their own and they are physically able to work, available, and actively seeking to work. Generally, individuals who are laid off are eligible for benefits. In addition, workers with "good cause" to leave work could receive benefits, even if they had voluntarily left their employment. The Employment Security Department had discretion to consider whether the circumstances constituted "good cause."
For many years, Washington was at the forefront in ensuring that unemployment compensation laws recognized the different pressures facing women workers. For example, Legal Voice advocated successfully for reforms such as extending coverage for workers who must leave jobs because of domestic violence, or because they were harassed at work.
Yet the past few years have seen attempts to limit access to benefits—including changes that affect women disproportionately. In 2003, the Washington Legislature significantly restricted the reasons that constituted "good cause" to leave work, making it harder for workers to get benefits. Subsequent to those changes, the Employment Security Department itself conducted studies showing that the 2003 changes in the law resulted in a disproportionate increase in women being denied unemployment compensation. Workers used to be eligible for benefits if they quit because of domestic or marital responsibilities—for example, if they quit to follow a spouse who has transferred jobs, or if they quit because they lost child care.
In addition, the law in many states, including Washington, requires people to be available to work full-time in order to be eligible for benefits. Thus, workers who are available only part-time cannot receive benefits—and again, disproportionately, these workers are women, as women comprise more than two-thirds of the part-time workforce.
Moreover, while workers are eligible for benefits if they leave their jobs to care for an immediate family member who is seriously ill, the definition of "family" has been interpreted to exclude same-sex partners.
The battle to return to the prior definition of "good cause" continues to wage in the courts and in the legislature. Legal Voice and its allies have challenged Washington's unemployment law as violating Washington's Equal Rights Amendment, because it results in disproportionate denial of benefits to women. We will also continue to advocate in the courts and before the legislature to ensure that the agency has discretion to define "good cause" to include compelling personal reasons, rather than a limited list of work-related reasons. Reforms such as these will have the added benefit of providing states access to federal funds available through the Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act.
Were you denied unemployment benefits after you left work to follow a spouse or to take care of other family responsibilities? Contact us and let us know.
Learn More
- The Unemployment Law Project, which has offices in Seattle and Spokane, provides self-help resources and helps individuals secure unemployment benefits.
- Washington LawHelp provides several on-line self-help resources relating to unemployment compensation.
- The National Employment Law Project, a national workers' rights advocacy organization, has information about public policy relating to unemployment benefits.
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