News & Information

CCH® UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE — 06/20/12

Wisconsin amends its UI law on various topics

Wisconsin has amended its Unemployment Insurance and Reserves Act, as follows:

Waiver. The law now provides that the requirement to conduct a reasonable search for suitable work may be waived. In addition, a claimant is ineligible to receive benefits for any week for which there is a determination that he or she failed to conduct a reasonable search for suitable work and the Department has not waived the search requirement. If the Department has paid benefits to a claimant for any such week, it may recover the overpayment.

Partial unemployment. A claimant will be ineligible to receive any benefits for a week in which one or more of the following applies to that claimant for 32 or more hours in that week: The claimant performs work or has wages as defined under the law; or the claimant receives holiday pay, vacation pay, termination pay, or sick pay under circumstances satisfying the requirements of the law for treatment as wages in that week. Moreover, a claimant will be ineligible to receive any benefits for a week if he or she receives from one or more employers: Wages of more than $500 earned for work performed in that week; or sick pay, holiday pay, vacation pay, or termination pay which, by itself or in combination with wages earned for work performed in that week, is equivalent to more than $500. In addition, a claimant will be ineligible to receive benefits for any week in which he or she conceals wages.

Determination of employer. Except as provided for a temporary help company, a professional employer organization, a corporation that pays wages to an employee who is concurrently employed by that corporation and one or more related corporations, and a provider of home health care and personal care services for medical assistance recipients, the Department will determine which of the employing units is the employer of the employee by considering the following: (a) An employing unit’s right by contract and in fact to: (1) determine a prospective employee’s qualifications to perform the services in question and to hire or discharge the employee; (2) determine the details of the employee’s pay including the amount of, method of, and frequency of changes in that pay; (3) train the employee and exercise direction and control over the performance of services by the employee and when and how they are to be performed; (4) impose discipline upon the employee for rule or policy infractions or unsatisfactory performance; (5) remove the employee from one job or assign the employee to a different job; (6) require oral or written reports from the employee; (7) evaluate the quantity and quality of the services provided by the employee; (8) assign a substitute employee to perform the services of an employee if the employee is unavailable for work or is terminated from work; and (9) assign alternative work to the employee if the employee is removed from a particular job. In addition, the Department will determine which employing unit: (1) benefits directly or indirectly from the services performed by the employee; (2) maintains a pool of workers who are available to perform the services in question; and (3) is responsible for employee compliance with applicable regulatory laws and for enforcement of such compliance.

A provider of home health care and personal care services for medical assistance recipients may elect to be the employer of one or more workers providing those services. As a condition of eligibility for election, the provider must notify in writing the recipient of any such services of its election, for purposes of the unemployment insurance law, to be the employer of any worker providing such services to the recipient, and must be treated as the employer by the IRS for purposes of federal unemployment taxes on the worker’s services.

Balancing account. The amount of any overpayments that are recovered by the Department by setoff or the amount of any overpayments resulting from fraud or failure to report earnings that are recovered by the Department by offset will be credited to the balancing account. Also credited to the balancing account are any amounts transferred to said account from the unemployment interest payment fund.

Contributions to repay federal interest. Each employer will pay an assessment to the unemployment interest payment fund at a rate established by the Department sufficient to pay interest due on advances from the federal unemployment account under Title XII of the Social Security Act. The amount of any employer’s assessment will be the product of the rate established for that employer multiplied by the employer’s payroll from the previous calendar year as taken from quarterly employment and wage reports or, in the absence of such reports, estimates made by the Department. Each assessment made is due 30 days after the date notice of the assessment is mailed by the Department. If the amounts collected are in excess of the amount needed to pay the interest due, the Department will use any excess to pay interest owed in subsequent years on advances from the federal unemployment account. If the Department determines that additional interest obligations are unlikely, it will transfer the excess to the balancing account of the fund.

Nonlapsible trust fund. There is created a separate, nonlapsible trust fund designated as the unemployment interest payment fund.

Unemployment program integrity fund. There is created a separate, nonlapsible trust fund designated as the unemployment program integrity fund. The Department will use the money in this fund for payment of costs associated with program integrity activities. Note that this provision is set to be repealed January 1, 2014.