Can You Draw Unemployment After a Contract Job Ends?
Many U.S. workers work contract jobs instead of working as traditional employees. If you’ve ever hired a house cleaner, a carpenter or a bookkeeper, you’ve worked with independent contractors on contract jobs. If you’re the independent contractor, it’s difficult for you receive unemployment benefits after a contract job ends unless you’ve worked as a traditional employee in some other capacity.
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Contract Jobs
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When someone offers you a contract job, he’s usually offering you employment as an independent contractor. It’s an important distinction because independent contractors are not employees. Instead they are self-employed people who offer services to a company or individual based on the terms of a contract for a project or finite period of time.
Insured Wages
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To collect unemployment, you must meet the financial eligibility requirement for your state. This is a minimum threshold of insured wages you must have earned before you can collect benefits. Insured wages are those from employment covered under your state’s unemployment compensation laws. Independent contract work isn’t covered by these laws. So to collect unemployment insurance after a contract job ends, you must have wages from other sources that meet the insured wages threshold.
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Base Period
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Another factor in whether you can collect unemployment is your base period. All of the insured wages that affect your claim must occur during your base period. Your base period is the first four of the last five full calendar quarters before you filed for benefits. While there’s no deadline to file for unemployment, each day you wait to file potentially changes your base period. So if you want to apply for unemployment after a contract job ends, the base period calculated for that time must have enough insured wages in it to qualify.
Alternate Period
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It’s worth noting that some states offer an alternate base period to those who can’t qualify using the standard base period. The alternate base period is just the last four full calendar quarters before you file your claim. If your standard base period would prevent you from qualifying for unemployment after a contract job, your state may offer to let you use the alternate base period.
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