What does wage determination mean on unemployment - Washington ESD confusing me

Thanks! How do I know if the wages are actually wrong though? Some of the amounts seem lower than what I remember earning.

Check your pay stubs or tax documents from those quarters. If there's a discrepancy, you can file a wage protest with Washington ESD.

That makes sense. One of my employers was pretty disorganized so they probably reported wrong amounts.

Yeah this happened to me too. My part-time job from 2023 showed way less than I actually made because they filed their quarterly reports late.

You should try Claimyr - it's a service that helps you get through to Washington ESD agents. I used it last month when I had adjudication issues and got connected in like 20 minutes. Check out claimyr.com and there's a demo video at https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ that shows how it works.

I feel your pain. Been trying to reach them about my wage determination for 3 weeks. The online messaging system is useless too.

That's helpful! So if my highest quarter was $12,000, my weekly benefit would be around $462?

That sounds about right, but there are caps on the maximum weekly benefit amount. For 2025 it's $999 per week in Washington.

wait i thought the max was different? my neighbor said it was like $800 something

Wow that's confusing. I think I meet the requirements but math isn't my strong suit.

Don't worry about calculating it yourself - Washington ESD does that automatically when they process your claim. If you qualified, you'll see a benefit amount on your determination.

How do you file a wage protest? Is it online or do you have to call?

You can do it online through your Washington ESD account or by calling them. Online is usually faster if the system is working properly.

I tried filing online but kept getting error messages. Had to call and use that Claimyr service someone mentioned earlier to actually get through to someone who could help me file the protest.

Which calling service did you use? Was it expensive?

it was claimyr i think. worth every penny when youre losing money every week because of wrong wage determination

I'm in the same boat right now. My wage determination is missing wages from my last job and it's costing me like $150 per week in benefits.

Only if your employer reported them properly. Cash tips that weren't reported to the IRS won't show up in your wage determination.

That explains why my wages seem so low. Most of my income was cash tips that probably weren't reported correctly.

This is why it's important to keep track of all your earnings, even cash tips. Makes situations like this much easier to resolve.

Good advice! I'll gather all my paperwork before trying to contact them.

Also make copies of everything before you send it to them. I sent original documents once and they got lost in the system.

Thanks for the explanation! I think mine might be wrong so I'll definitely look into getting it corrected.

Don't feel bad about being confused - the whole unemployment system is designed to be confusing so people give up and don't file claims.

That makes sense. I definitely want to make sure it's accurate then since it affects so much.

Exactly. I ignored a wage determination error when I first filed and it cost me thousands of dollars over the course of my benefit year. Don't make the same mistake I did.