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omg same thing happened to my boyfriend except his boss tried to say he was drunk when he fell off the ladder!! total bs, he doesnt even drink. some employers are just terrible about this stuff. definitely file workers comp and dont let them scare you
Just to be crystal clear about the money differences - NYS unemployment maxes out at $504/week but workers' comp pays 2/3 of your actual wages with no weekly cap. So if you were making $1200/week, workers' comp would pay you $800/week while unemployment would only pay $504. Plus workers' comp covers all your medical bills which unemployment obviously doesn't do.
If you're having trouble getting through to NYS Department of Labor to ask questions about the appeal process, I recently found this service called Claimyr that helped me reach an actual agent. They have a website at claimyr.com and there's a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. I was getting nowhere trying to call on my own but this got me connected within a few hours. Might be worth checking out since time is important with the 30-day appeal deadline.
I had trouble getting clear information about my exhaustee status when I called the NYS Department of Labor directly. The wait times were insane and when I finally got through, the agent wasn't very helpful. I ended up using Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get connected to an actual NYS Department of Labor representative who could explain my options. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Much easier than sitting on hold for hours!
How much does that service cost? I'm already struggling financially and can't afford expensive services right now.
Being an exhaustee also affects how you file if you become unemployed again in the future. You might need to establish a new benefit year rather than continuing your old claim. The NYS Department of Labor looks at your earnings history differently for exhaustees versus people who are still within their original benefit year.
Wait so the employer pays the federal unemployment tax rate but we still have to pay taxes on the benefits we receive? That seems like double taxation to me. The whole system is designed to screw over working people.
Zoe Wang
Don't forget about the regional differences too. Upstate NY has different unemployment challenges than NYC - rural areas need different solutions than urban areas. The NYS Department of Labor tailors programs accordingly. Like in Buffalo they focus more on manufacturing retraining while in the city it's more about tech and finance skills.
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Connor Richards
Good luck with your paper! This sounds like important research. The unemployment system definitely needs improvement but it's good to see students analyzing what actually works versus what just sounds good on paper.
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