Excess hours on my first claim but still laid off - Does this count as my waiting week?

The waiting week is the first week you're eligible for benefits, but if you have 'excess hours' for that week, it means you worked too many hours to qualify for benefits that specific week. ESD generally considers you to have excess hours if you worked more than 40 hours or earned more than your weekly benefit amount. However, yes, it can still count as your waiting week IF you were otherwise eligible (like having job separation that qualifies). Did you report your hours and earnings correctly when you filed?

This EXACT thing happened to me 3 months ago!! If u worked those days that week and made over a certain $ amount they mark it as excess hours. The tricky thing is that it DOESN'T count as your waiting week if u had excess hours. So yeah u gotta do another week of waiting unfortunately. The system is designed to delay your benefits as much as possible imo

Actually, this is a common misunderstanding. The waiting week requirement depends on whether you were *eligible* for benefits during that week, not whether you received payment. If your hours were truly 'excess' (meaning you earned more than your weekly benefit amount), then that week doesn't count as your waiting week. However, if you only worked 16 hours as you mentioned, it seems unlikely you'd have excess hours unless you have a very high wage or low weekly benefit amount. You should check your earnings for that week against your weekly benefit amount on your UI claim. If there's an error, contact ESD for clarification.

Sounds liek theres a mistake on your claim. Call ESD and ask them to explain. good luck lololol those phone lines are IMPOSSIBLE to get through. i tried for 3 whole days last month and never got anyone

I think there's an error in your claim. Based on what you said - only working 16 hours and earning $320 with a WBA of $550 - you shouldn't have excess hours. The ESD system sometimes flags things incorrectly. You need to call them ASAP and explain the situation. When you do talk to someone, ask specifically: 1) Why was I marked with excess hours? 2) Does this count as my waiting week? 3) When will my benefits start if I continue filing weekly claims? Get the agent's name and ID number too so you have a record of the conversation.

One thing to check: did you report your hours correctly? ESD calculates your benefits based on hours worked in the CLAIM week (Sunday-Saturday), not when you got paid. If you worked the previous week and got paid during this claim week, but reported those hours, that could cause confusion. Also, make sure you properly reported your separation date as Wednesday, not Friday, if that's when your last day was.

update us after u get through to ESD! i'm curious what they say cuz i might be in the same boat soon, my company is talking about layoffs 😬

Just to follow up - I checked the ESD handbook, and the formula they use is: if you earn 1.33 times your weekly benefit amount, you're considered to have excess earnings. So with a WBA of $550, you'd need to earn more than $731.50 in a week to have 'excess hours.' Since you only earned $320, something doesn't add up. Definitely contact them for clarification. And make sure to continue filing your weekly claims while you sort this out!

I had a similar issue last year where ESD incorrectly flagged my claim with "excess hours" when I clearly didn't meet the threshold. Turned out there was a glitch in their system that sometimes miscalculates earnings vs. hours worked. When I finally got through to an agent (took forever), they fixed it within 5 minutes and backdated my benefits to include that waiting week. The key is being persistent with calling - try first thing in the morning right when they open at 8 AM, that's when I had the most luck getting through. Also, keep detailed records of exactly what you reported vs. what shows up in your account so you can clearly explain the discrepancy to the agent.