Hello everybody, it's Sam from Financial Samurai and in this crazy time full of lockdowns uncertainty and Unemployment. I wanted to talk about the states with the highest and lowest unemployment benefits. It was a really eye-opening exercise for me to research and to understand how much states provide or don't provide and this unemployment information by state will also Provide you with some information to make better decisions on whether to relocate for a job in a different state Because if you go to a state that has poor unemployment benefits, you might want to demand some higher benefits and a higher salary Now if you relocate to a state that has high unemployment benefits Well, you can be more flexible on your terms and you can also feel better About going to that state just in case you lose your job.

Let's start off with some sad, but unfortunately realistic Unemployment numbers that could come out by the end of the summer 2020 or maybe by the end of the year frankly as Of May 2020 there are 30 million Americans who have filed for unemployment benefits now That's out of a hundred sixty million working population So that's almost a 20% unemployment rate now if we calculate 3 million unemployment claims a week given the lockdowns will continue throughout May and maybe June hopefully not We're talking at least 40 million unemployed and if we talk about the jobs not fully coming back The numbers really could hover in the tens of millions Let's say 10 to 20 million by the end of the year even as the economy Rebounds and the lockdowns end.

So these are huge huge numbers and thanks to the CARES Act It has increased unemployment benefits by $600 a week through July 31st 2020 and you will get unemployment benefits not the enhanced ones But just regular unemployment benefits through the end of the year December 31st 2020 now who knows what will happen on July 31st 2020 Maybe the government will continue to enhance unemployment benefits of $600 a week if things are still pretty dire Because they did promise they're gonna do everything possible to ensure that the economy doesn't go under so who knows But on the flip side you actually don't want the government to provide these enhanced unemployment benefits for too long because that means the economy Is really down in the dumps.

So let's look at the top 25 states with the highest unemployment benefits Unemployment benefits are basically paid out by the employer into an unemployment benefits fund and then the benefits are paid out by the state For about 26 weeks is the average but some states only pay around 20 weeks But the average is about 26 weeks 25 26 weeks and then after 26 weeks the federal government kicks in Unemployment benefits are basically calculated by week and you can get your benefits usually every two weeks Maybe sometimes every once a week, but every two weeks is usually the norm and it takes Not on anywhere from two weeks to six weeks to first get your unemployment benefits Right now everything is backlogged so you can understand that sometimes you just can't even get through but you got to keep on trying And don't worry I think a lot of states will provide retroactive unemployment benefits and it's not like you're gonna miss out and get cut off So let's start off with Massachusetts the number one highest state for unemployment benefits at eight hundred twenty three dollars a week So the normal monthly maximum if we use four weeks per month is three thousand two hundred ninety two dollars That's pretty good But remember you got to pay taxes on that and if you add in the cares act weekly bonus of six hundred dollars a week You could add two thousand four hundred dollars a month for a total weekly benefit of fourteen hundred twenty three dollars and a total monthly benefit of five thousand six hundred ninety two dollars So the top five states are all around five thousand and up and they are Massachusetts Washington, Minnesota, New Jersey and Connecticut Hawaii the total monthly benefit with the cares act is four thousand nine hundred ninety two and the worst of the top 25 states provides a benefit of 4,276 with the cares act enhanced benefits that state is Nevada Normally, they would provide monthly benefits of only eighteen hundred seventy six dollars, which is not great But it's not that bad.

Now these numbers are per person So if you have a two working adult family household and these two individuals both lost their jobs Theoretically if you're in one of the top 25 states, you could get total monthly unemployment benefits with the cares act of between 8,500 to $11,300 a month.

I Would say that most of you maybe eighty ninety percent of you could live just fine off One person's unemployment benefits if you're just one person or family of four living off two people's unemployment benefits If they were making that much now Hopefully you have some savings to buttress that any shortfall if you need more But that is a pretty decent amount of money and we have to thank the government for being so aggressive and so proactive Also, we have to recognize there is a correlation between the amount of qualified income earned The unemployment benefit amount and the cost of living per state in other words higher cost of living states generally have higher unemployment benefits however Some states such as Minnesota, Oregon, North Dakota, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Kansas and Ohio Seem to have more generous unemployment benefits than their cost of living would dictate for example The median household income in North Dakota is about sixty one thousand eight hundred dollars However, you now get maximum unemployment benefits of about fifty nine thousand three hundred dollars So that's pretty good.

If I was a North Dakota and didn't have a job I would be honest. I would probably take those unemployment benefits until July 31st or Until I found the absolute absolute perfect job and that's really hard to do right now when things are locked up and there's so much Uncertainty and companies are having hiring freezes.

What can you do but do the rational thing in my opinion the state? You want to best become unemployed is in Hawaii. Not only is Hawaii amazing place sunny warm Lots of free outdoor activities. Hawaii also offers six hundred forty eight dollars a week in maximum unemployment benefits Due to the cares act the unemployed get twelve hundred forty eight dollars a week maximum or four thousand nine hundred ninety two dollars per month So even receiving the normal two thousand five hundred ninety two dollars a month and unemployment benefits is pretty good Think about what each state offers because it's important for where you want to work where you want to retire And where you want to kind of transition your life depending on what stage in your life you are in now Let's look at the states with the lowest unemployment benefits Although the amounts are much lower than the states with the highest unemployment benefits The benefit amounts are also correlated again with the cost of living per state So for example, Puerto Rico is the number one lowest quote state for unemployment benefits at a hundred ninety dollars a week maximum So the normal monthly max is seven hundred sixty dollars But with the cares act not discriminating against anybody in any state of six hundred dollars a week The total monthly with cares act pay is three thousand one hundred sixty dollars Now if you think about that, that's pretty good because the median household income in Puerto Rico is roughly twenty thousand five hundred a year or seventeen hundred eight dollars a month Therefore you can now earn Eighty-five percent more than the median household income through unemployment benefits So let's talk about the other top states with the lowest unemployment benefits.

They are, Mississippi Arizona, Louisiana, Alabama Florida, Tennessee, Missouri, South Carolina, North Carolina Michigan, Georgia and so forth and if you want to see the full list You can just click over to the post in the show notes and you see two charts with the highest and lowest unemployment benefits by state It's really interesting to see this list because I live in California and I thought getting four hundred fifty dollars a week was pretty good But guess what?

Compared to everyone else four hundred fifty dollars a week in San Francisco is not very good at all So when you adjust for the cost of living unfortunately, I think California the District of Columbia and Arizona Provide the least amount of unemployment benefits for how expensive it is Now there's another category here states with highest unemployment benefits with dependents Ah, it actually changes if you have kids or not That's a pretty logical move by states and it shows which states are kind of on the ball and pro-family Let's look at the six states with special enhanced unemployment benefits for dependents Connecticut Weekly max normal is six hundred forty nine dollars.

It goes up to seven hundred forty nine dollars with dependents Okay, hundred dollars more a week. Not bad, Illinois kind of a disaster in terms of state budget and property taxes and so forth, but The weekly max normal is four hundred eighty four dollars and you got six hundred sixty seven dollars with dependents That's almost a two hundred dollar increase now, Massachusetts Number one state with the highest unemployment benefits at eight hundred twenty three dollars max normal a week It goes up to twelve hundred thirty four dollars with dependents.

What a 50% bump four hundred dollars more. I mean folks recognize recognize that if you find a job in Boston Or somewhere in Massachusetts you want to start a family Massachusetts is number one if you ever get unemployed Ohio pretty darn good four hundred eighty dollars max normal a week with dependents.

It goes up to six hundred forty seven Pennsylvania Not good $572 max normal weight goes up by eight bucks a week to 580 and then Rhode Island not bad, Rhode Island It is ranked one of the top states to buy real estate from a previous post The max normal week is five hundred eighty six dollars and it goes up to eight hundred sixty seven dollars with dependents Now again, this is pre cares act So you add on the cares act enhanced unemployment benefits of six hundred dollars a week and then boom shakalaka You've got a pretty good Unemployment benefits amount there are now 37 states that provide unemployment benefits that are at least the average Or up to 125 percent higher than the average wage So if you think about that rationally the people in these 37 states if they've lost their jobs should absolutely Apply for unemployment benefits you paid into it It's deserved and you should probably use it use it until the enhanced unemployment benefits runs out right now July 31st 2020 but it could be at an indefinite time Who knows and some will talk about you know moral reasons not to look again you paid into it as part of your wage as an unemployment benefits insurance program per state and Life is tough right now.

Life is full of lockdowns and uncertainty at the very least What you can do is get your finances order get some benefits after all those taxes You've paid for all those years and all the hard work you've given to your company who's laid you off There should be absolutely no shame in taking unemployment benefits So don't feel that shame and don't let anybody else shame you otherwise if you have not lost your job yet But you are thinking or you have been thinking about doing something new for a long time Now is probably the best time ever in a long time in at least 10 years to try to engineer your layoff in order to get a severance package and the enhanced unemployment benefits Bosses right now are stressed out.

They're being told by their bosses Okay, you've got to cut 10% of your team because we got to get through this or you got to furlough them Or you got to cut their wages by 20 to 50 percent. It is really really stressful to be a boss right now I've talked to CEOs my friends who are CEOs and other small business owners.

They don't want to lay anybody off There's a lot of social pressure for not laying anybody off. That is just it's just tough, right? So if you can help ameliorate your bosses angst by saying hey, I'm willing to get laid off Do you think we can do some kind of severance package?

I've been a good employee I've been here for three four or five ten years This is your opportunity. This is your opportunity to have that conversation because it is so Understandable right now. It's just not out of the blue. Hey, it's a bull market what you're doing good. Wait, what you want to leave?

No, no, no, no right now. This is a reset This is beyond strange times Have the discussion to try to negotiate a severance if you've been wanting to leave for a while and who knows Let's say you get your severance you get your unemployment benefits You have time to breathe and relax and stand still for a while in this crazy competitive world You might find something you like to do that is different from work because all you've been thinking all these years is just work work Work clients, whatever getting these things done.

You finally have time to think about other things time for yourself I really think you'll surprise yourself If you take a step back to think about your life to think about what you want to do I left in 2012. I was a little bit uncertain. Yes, I had financial samurai that I started in 2009 But of course, I didn't know exactly for sure whether financial samurai is something that I wanted to do For the rest of my life, but here I am almost 11 years later, and I think It's a pretty good gig doesn't matter whether it does well or not.

I just like to write I like to record I like to connect and I like to share some thoughts so that I can prevent people from Engaging in sub optimal financial behavior or avoiding landmines that I stepped on when I was in my younger days If I could rewind time to when I was 32 years old And if I was in a lockdown period at 32 years old, I would absolutely try to plant my flag on the internet The internet has shown its resiliency because hey look in a lockdown period you can shut off financial samurai You can't shut off these websites Now, of course if you have massive massive costs you might want to shut it down But for the most part running a website is really cheap and easy and free So I would try try something online because all online cannot be touched from offline activity And if you have enough investment income Well, maybe you can use this time as a test drive for early retirement It's kind of like early retirement, but it's not really because your liberties have been taken away by These governors and mayors who I don't know it's up to you to decide but after seven weeks of quarantine, I Think there should be some flexibility here, but hey, let's not get into that in conclusion Know that the unemployment benefits out there are strong and they are stronger in some states than others Before you relocate for a job think about what type of unemployment benefits and other safety nets they have The benefits are also indicative of the attitude the government the local government has For families and for individuals it just permeates through the government I know Hawaii is a very blue state and it's very family oriented And it really wants to help as many people as possible.

Just kind of get ahead That's why Hawaii is one of the top states I want to relocate to but it's also because my family's there so find your favorite state Think about it. If you're in your existing state look at the charts and see what kind of benefits you can get Please get those benefits.

This is the time to take advantage of these benefits Reset your life think about what you want to do and stay safe and strong everyone I miss you guys And if you enjoyed this ad free podcast, I'd love a positive review and for you to share it with your friends Take care.

Stay safe. Be strong and good luck