ESD charging my former employer instead of recent one - employer tax question

The base year employer(s) are the ones who get charged, not necessarily the most recent one. ESD uses your wages from the first 4 of the last 5 completed calendar quarters to determine your benefits. If you only worked at the startup for 6 months, and those months fall outside the base year, then yes, your previous employer will be the one receiving the notification and being charged.

im in hr at a small company and we get charged all the time for ppl who worked for us years ago!!! system is messed up but thats how it works. the charges r based on base period not who laid u off

The UI tax system is designed this way intentionally. Benefits are based on your base year wages, and the employers who paid those wages contribute proportionally to your benefits. It's not about who laid you off - it's about who contributed to your wage history that qualifies you for benefits. If your startup employment will eventually fall within a new base year, you could consider waiting to file, but that would mean going without benefits now. Usually not worth it.

I HAD THE EXACT SAME ISSUE!!! This is so ridiculous. My old employer who I LEFT VOLUNTARILY is getting charged because my most recent employer (who actually laid me off) wasn't in my base year. My old boss called me all upset asking why I filed for unemployment against his company when I hadn't worked there in over a year!!! I had to awkwardly explain the whole thing. THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN!

Is your startup so new that they weren't paying into the unemployment system yet? Sometimes really new businesses have a grace period before they start paying UI taxes, which might explain why they're not showing up.

I had this exact problem last year and spent WEEKS trying to get through to ESD to explain the situation. I finally managed to reach someone using Claimyr (claimyr.com) - they got me connected to an actual ESD agent in about 20 minutes when I'd been trying for days on my own. There's a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ?si=26TzE_zGms-DODN3 The agent explained that the charging is based on the base year employers, but if your more recent employer should be in your base year and isn't showing up, there might be a reporting issue. They helped me file a wage investigation to get my missing employer added.

One thing to consider: If your startup employer isn't in your base year but you have enough wages from your previous employer to qualify for benefits, it might actually be better to leave things as they are. Starting a wage investigation could potentially delay your claim while they sort everything out. Just something to think about if you're currently receiving benefits without issues.

my cousin works at esd and says this happens ALL THE TIME. the base year thing confuses everyone. she says they get angry calls from employers like 'why am i getting charged when i didnt fire them???' all day long lol

Just to clarify for everyone in this thread: The UI tax charging system is based on an insurance model. Employers pay premiums (UI taxes) that go into a pool which funds benefits. When an employee becomes unemployed, the system looks back at who benefited from their labor during the base period (as evidenced by who paid their wages) rather than who caused the unemployment. In Washington, benefits are charged proportionally to all base year employers based on how much they paid you. So if 80% of your base year wages came from Employer A and 20% from Employer B, then Employer A would be charged for 80% of your benefits. Employers understand this is part of doing business, even if they sometimes get frustrated by it.