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New Rules for Jobless Benefits Boon for Many Women

By Sharon Johnson, WeNews Correspondent
Sunday, December 6, 2009

Federal recovery funds are prodding states to extend jobless benefits to categories of workers dominated by women: those who lose part-time jobs and those who leave employment for pressing family reasons, including domestic violence.
(WOMENSENEWS)--Women account for 7 out of 10 workers who leave jobs because of loss of child care, relocation of a spouse or other work-family conflicts, according to recent research by the New York-based National Employment Law Project.

In the majority of states, such workers are ineligible for unemployment insurance benefits, which average $350 a week, because they are considered to have “voluntarily left the labor force.”

But thanks to provisions in the federal recovery program designed to modernize unemployment insurance, more workers with work-family conflicts are becoming eligible.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which President Barack Obama signed in February, provides $7 billion to help states extend jobless benefits to workers who have fallen through the cracks in the system. These include low-income workers, part-time workers and those with work-family conflicts.

About half the states had enacted reforms by August, according to the National Employment Law Project.
“States are beginning to recognize the contributions of women as breadwinners and caregivers,” said Christine Riordan, a policy analyst at the National Law Employment Project. “In 1935 when the unemployment system was designed, 30 percent of women were in the paid work force. Today 66 percent are employed outside the home.”

The National Employment Law Project estimates that 500,000 more workers each year could receive unemployment benefits if all the reforms in the federal act were incorporated by the states.

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