Unemployment Compensation
• Forty-nine (49) percent of employing small businesses had no employee turn-over in the last 12 months. Fifty-nine (59) percent experienced no quits; 73 percent fired no one; and, 87 percent did not lay anyone off for economic reasons. Still, the average number of turn-overs in the year amounted to 3.2 employees per firm.
• Twenty-two (22) percent of small employers with one or more fired employees in the last 12 months attributed at least one of those discharges to unsafe work practices by the fired employee and 2 percent attributed at least one to harassment over sex, race, etc. • Twenty-two (22) percent of all small businesses or 41 percent of those that had an employee leave for any reason had an unemployment compensation claim filed against them in the last year.
• Small employers usually challenge the unemployment claims they think are unjustified. Fifty-three (53) percent of small employers do not think the last unemployment claim filed against them was justified. Small employers challenged 51 percent of the most recent unemployment compensation claims filed against them.
• The most frequent reason to challenge an unemployment claim (51%) was that an employee was fired for cause. The second most common reason was that an employee voluntarily quit (36%). The most common reason (70%) a small employer did not challenge the most recent unemployment claim was because the claim was justified.
• Over three in four (78%) small employers challenged the most recent claim in writing only. In about one of 10 challenges (11%), the small employer or a designate appeared at the hearing. A lawyer represented them in only about 5 percent of cases.
• Small employers, as a group, know comparatively little about the unemployment (FUTA) taxes they pay. Two-thirds could not or would not estimate the amount of FUTA taxes they pay per employee per year. Further, about half did not have a general idea of how their FUTA taxes are calculated.
• Small employers often take steps that directly and indirectly minimize their experienced based FUTA taxes. Examples include: annually verifying their unemployment compensation account to ensure its accuracy (59%); obtaining resignation letters from employees who voluntarily quit (36%); examining every unemployment compensation claim whether or not challenged (59%); and, maintaining records of events or circumstances leading to and including employee termination (67%).
• Fifty-six (56) percent of small businesses have written employment policies that are available to employees. Ninety-four (94) percent of those employing 20 or more have them.
• Fifteen (15) percent of small businesses have an employment contract with one or more employees.
• Three percent of small businesses have some unionized employees, but virtually none employ an entirely unionized staff.
