My girlfriend has had her job for a couple years now. She is paid salary as an office manager. Recently, the company has come into money problems. Not because of the economy but due to a divorce the owner is going through.
The boss is having a meeting with the office staff tomorrow, and is supposed to be offering my girlfriend half-days. This appears to be due to money issues in the company but also because they are trying to train a new employee and fit them into the budget. The problem is my girlfriend is salary and not an hourly employee. I’m pretty sure that you can’t keep your medical benefits if you are working half days.
So I’m assuming that he’s going to switch her to hourly. And at that point, can she say no? I think that if her hours/money are cut in half, and then later she gets laid off completely her unemployment benefits will be cut because of what she was making when she was let go.
If she just said no to the pay/hours cut, is she in the wrong here? I’m just not sure what the recourse is if your boss comes into the office and says, “Today you are making half of what you made yesterday. If you don’t like it, you can quit.” Which if you did quit, you can’t collect unemployment. So I think anyway.
Anyone have any experience with a situation like this and can suggest what she should do?
She needs to ask that question to the unemployment people in your state because the situations where you qualify for unemployment vary by state law to some extent. She also needs to factor in what she would get on unemployment versus working half days. It’s very possible that half days will still be more money as unemployment is not a simple dollar for dollar replacement of your previous income and in most states maxes out at a relatively low weekly number. For example, in Washington state the maximum weekly unemployment payment is $541 and you have to make $30k/year or more to qualify for that. Your state likely has an unemployment website with a lot of details on it.
Whether she is unemployed or working only half days she will still have plenty of time to look for another job.
Check your state unemployment laws, but at least in CA this is not the case. There is no hard and fast “quitting = no unemployment” rule. A few years ago I had to quit a job due to major circumstances changing (the company HQ moved and it would have added an hour each way onto my commute with no commensurate increase in compensation) and I still qualified for unemployment while I looked for a new job.
My interpretation is if the job title changes she has no obligation to take the new one. In other words, she’s losing her current job and being offered a different postion at substantially less money. I don’t see why she wouldn’t qualify for unemployment.
In Colorado, your unemployment benefits are based on what you made in the previous year. Strangely they don’t count right up to the time you lose your job. It goes back to the previous quarter. So if she takes the job for less money, and it only lasts a couple of months it may not change her benefit. Obviously CA may be very different.
It sounds like they really are screwing her though, good luck.
I’m currently working as a peon in the PA state unemployment system. As others have said, laws vary from state to state, but it’s probably unlikely that making less money in her last month or so will lower her benefit rate. Most states start with the quarter prior to the current quarter. Additionally, in PA you can collect benefits when you’re on reduced hours at work, they simply start deduct money from your benefits when you earn over 40% of your weekly benefit. Again, check the setup in your particular state. If you’re in Ohio, check out http://www.odjfs.state.oh.us/forms/file.asp?id=53775. According to that, they start deducting at 20% of your benefit rate. It doesn’t say anything about reduced hours at a current employer though, so I’m not sure exactly how they view that
I would warn you that if she does end up having a messy separation from her employer and things are anything like they are in PA, then be prepared to wait a while before getting any benefits paid out. It’s taking over a month before people are getting decisions on discharges/quits here, despite everyone working 10 hour days
