Unemployment Benefits for Musicians

Nationwide unemployment insurance first began in 1935 in response to the Great Depression.  At that time 25% or more of the United State’s workforce was unemployed. The unemployment insurance program is jointly administered by the federal and state governments and funded by state and federal payroll taxes that are paid by most employers.

The eligibility requirements, benefit amount and benefit duration are determined by each individual state. Generally, the eligibility for unemployment insurance is determined by the length and compensation for your employment prior to filing for the claim.

You may be ineligible for unemployment insurance if you are self-employed. According to the 2005 census, 43% of all professional musicians are self-employed, including freelancers, independent contractors and, generally, anyone that receives a 1099 tax form at the end of the year and not a W-2. If this is you, check with your unemployment office to confirm whether or not you are eligible for unemployment benefits in your state.

For the other 57% of musicians – some 96,000 musicians according to the census numbers – you may be eligible for unemployment insurance if you are subject to seasonal unemployment or general lay-offs from your gig. This includes musicians on payrolls to both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. According to the National Endowment for the Arts, only 30% of professional musicians are employed year-round, so it is very likely that some or all of us will run into unemployment sometime during our careers.

Some situations in which you might not consider unemployment benefits are: unemployment of symphony orchestras during summer months, unemployment following/between cruise ship jobs, weeks of layoff during national tours (Broadway or other corporate-backed tours), seasonal unemployment for theme park musicians, etc.  If you are hired as an employee for a limited amount of time, you may be eligible for unemployment insurance at the conclusion of your contract (depending on the length of the contract and amount of compensation earned).

The amount of money that you will recieve in unemployment insurance is determined by state and is almost always proportional to the amount of money you made at your job.  Each state caps the maximum weekly benefit at a different amount.  New York state, for instance, caps it’s weekly benefits at $405.  Other maximum weekly benefit amounts: Tennessee and Florida at $275, Illinois at $417, Missouri at $270, Nevada at $362, and California at $450.

Many musician’s jobs are mobile, so a problem for musicians can be finding out exactly which state to claim unemployment insurance benefits in.  Each state deals with this issue differently.  Generally speaking, it is best to begin researching your unemployment eligibility in the state that you currently, legally, reside in.  If you have worked in more than one state in the past year, you will most likely need to call or go in to talk to someone at the unemployment office in your area.  It’s usually not possible to file unemployment claims over pre-recorded phone systems or on the internet for those workers that have worked in multiple states.

If you have any questions at all regarding your eligibility for unemployment insurance, it’s very important that you ask the people at your unemployment office prior to filing an unemployment claim.  Unemployment insurance fraud is a felony.

Once your unemployment insurance filing has been accepted by your state, you will need to file weekly claims to receive your benefits.  Most states allow you to do this over the phone or on the internet by filling out a form or going through a pre-recorded phone menu.  It’s very important to truthfully fill out your weekly claims for unemployment.  For musicians, that often means claiming any freelance wages you received during your unemployment – income such as weekend gigs and cash jobs.

Your first week of benefits, called the “waiting week,” will not be paid, and you will not receive your second week benefits until after the second week is over.  After this initial lag, you can continue filing weekly claims for unemployment benefits until one of two things happens – you either get a job, or run out of benefit weeks.  The standard maximum number of weeks that you can claim unemployment insurance is 26 weeks (6 months).  There are provisions written into the Social Security act that allow benefits to extend past 26 weeks during times of high unemployment.

Update: On November 21st, 2008, President George Bush signed a extension of unemployment insurance.  This extension provides another 7 weeks of benefits for unemployed workers with an additional 13 weeks for workers that live in states with an unemployment rate over 6%. A list of state unemployment rates is available from the Department of Labor website.

Here are some important links:

• U.S. Department of Labor, Unemployment Insurance (UI) – The Dept. of Labor’s homepage for unemployment insurance information.
• About.com Unemployment Insurance Guide – includes a helpful list of unemployment websites for each state.
• Office of Workforce Security – Includes reports on the number of weekly unemployment insurance claims.