Gig workers in this state benefited most from federal unemployment benefit expansion
There are a few different economic factors going on here. For one, the term “gig workers” is often used as shorthand for people who make a living off of app-based companies like Uber, Handy or DoorDash. But the PUA extension applied to everyone who was self-employed or didn’t fall under the traditional employer-employee relationships. This includes high-paying professions like accountants, government contractors or consultants.
Another factor is how long it took to get PUA payments out the door. I spoke with Vermont Division Director for Unemployment Insurance Cameron Wood earlier this year who said his state’s priority was expediting payments to individuals and eliminating potential log jams. Vermont’s approach was to pay out the guaranteed minimum—$190 per week—and gave PUA claimants 21 days to submit any income documentation that would garner them a higher payment.
In many other states, claims went through a multi-step process where the initial payments were based on the original claim, but could be clawed back if the claimant could not submit income verification documentation within a specific time frame. In a lot of cases, that convoluted process resulted in months-long delays before claims were processed.
But overall, payment amounts for PUA tended to run smaller than regular unemployment claims and that’s likely due to the fact that the app-based workforce tends to earn a lower income compared with their fully-employed counterparts. As a share of total claims paid, most states paid somewhere between 7% and 12% of claim dollars to PUA claimants. By comparison, regular unemployment claim payments in most states accounted for 22% to 34% of all benefits paid out.
Now that the PUA program has ended, however, about 4.2 million non-traditional workers will no longer be able to collect unemployment, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by
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