- According to the National Employment Law Project (NELP), the requirements to receive unemployment compensation in all states includes establishing monetary eligibility by working a certain number of hours and earning a minimum wage from those hours, involuntarily separating from your job, remaining able and available to work, in addition to actively seeking job opportunities and refraining from refusing suitable work offers without a reasonable cause. Due to the nature of employment, temporary workers often a difficult a time meeting these basic requirements. Additionally, as a result of labor classifications, temp agencies -- the headhunters for temporary employees -- actually have fiscal incentives to ensure that temporary workers do not file for unemployment benefits.
- Many states' unemployment insurance laws treat temp agencies as the employer of temporary workers, not the third party job provider. These laws regard temp agencies as the employer for purposes of paying unemployment insurance taxes, workers' compensation and payroll taxes. Temp agencies have used this to their benefit by offering cheaper services to third parties to help them save on their payroll costs. However, like any private employer, temp agencies' unemployment insurance rates are set according to whether or not temporary workers file unemployment claims and receive benefits. As a result, temp agencies have an incentive to keep temporary workers from filing unemployment claims to ensure the cost of their services remains low.
According to the NELP, in some instances, temp agencies have said a temporary worker voluntarily quit their job to avoid paying unemployment insurance when the job assignment actually ended under normal circumstances. Keeping accurate records of your job assignments, hours worked and wages earned when filing for unemployment as a temporary worker to ensure you remain eligible for benefits is important. - Seventeen states (Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas) have passed laws that consider temporary workers voluntarily unemployed unless the worker contacts their temp agency prior to submitting an application for unemployment benefits. Failure to verify that you contacted your temp agency for job referrals before applying for unemployment will result in disqualification within these states.
- If you work a temporary job while collecting unemployment benefits, you can collect benefits during the weeks you aren't employed full time. However, if you take on a full-time temporary job for two weeks or more, some states such as California will require that you complete a new unemployment application should you become unemployed again.
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