The Wisconsin on indicator for unemployment insurance extended benefit purposes

What it would have done

Summary by the Legislative Reference Bureau, the Legislature's nonpartisan drafting office. It's their wording, not ours.

Currently, the maximum number of weeks of unemployment insurance benefits that an eligible claimant may qualify to receive is normally 26 weeks. However, during certain periods of high unemployment in this state, as defined by law, a claimant who has exhausted all of his or her rights to receive benefits in a given benefit year (period during which benefits are payable to a claimant) may potentially qualify to receive up to 13 weeks of "extended benefits," the cost of which, with certain exceptions, are normally shared between the federal government and employers in this state. Under recent federal legislation, the employer share is also paid by the federal government for private employers, including nonprofit organization employers but not including Indian tribal employers, during certain periods. For extended benefits to be paid in this state, there must be a Wisconsin "on" indicator, which is currently determined by calculating the rates of total or insured unemployment for various periods under one of three methods.

This bill adds a fourth method of determining a Wisconsin "on" indicator, which applies only for so long as full federal funding is provided (currently, for claims filed before January 4, 2012). Under this method, 1) the rate of insured unemployment for the period consisting of the week in which the determination is made and the 12 preceding weeks must equal or exceed 120 percent of the average of such rates for the corresponding 13-week periods ending in each of the preceding 3 calendar years and must equal or exceed 5 percent; or 2) the average rate of seasonally adjusted total unemployment for the period consisting of the most recent 3 months for which national data is available must equal or exceed 6.5 percent and must equal or exceed 110 percent of the average for any of the corresponding 3-month periods ending in the 3 preceding calendar years. Under federal and state law, however, once an extended benefit period ends because in a given week there is no Wisconsin "on" indicator, no new extended benefit period may begin in this state for at least another 13 weeks thereafter.

Who's behind it

14 senators are its authors⁠. All 14 are Democrats.

What it would cost

State agencies filed a cost estimate. Each opens as a PDF from the Legislature.

• Fiscal Estimate From DWD