Unemployment Compensation benefits to increase in 2007
Employer contribution rates to remain unchanged

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services today announced that maximum weekly benefit amounts for regular unemployment compensation claims will increase for new claims filed in Ohio on or after Dec. 31, 2006. The agency also announced that the tax rates used to calculate payments by employers to Ohio's Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund will remain the same in 2007.

"Ohio's unemployment compensation laws provide a system that ensures that unemployed workers have an adequate safety net while looking for work," ODJFS Director Barbara Riley said. "The law also created a fair and equitable formula designed to keep the employer-supported fund solvent even during periods of high claims activity."

Under state law, maximum weekly benefit amounts are adjusted each year based on the increase in the statewide average weekly wage for workers covered by unemployment compensation and currently based on the number of eligible dependents. A claimant's weekly benefit amount is set at 50 percent of the applicant's average weekly wage up to the appropriate maximum

The maximum weekly benefit amounts for 2007 are: $355 for an individual with no dependents; $431 for an individual with one or two dependents; and $479 for an individual with three or more dependents.

The benefits paid to unemployed workers while they look for work are funded through the employer-supported Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund. State law requires the trust fund be evaluated each year to determine whether a change in the tax rate schedule is needed in the following year to maintain the fund's solvency. This year's review determined the trust fund's balance was at a level that the current rates could sustain.

There are approximately 228,000 Ohio employers whose workers are eligible to receive Unemployment Compensation. Employers will continue to be taxed on the first $9,000 that each covered employee is paid in a year. The minimum rate employers will pay in 2007 is 0.4 percent ($36 per employee) while the maximum is 9 percent ($810 per employee). The average rate paid by employers in 2007 is projected to be about 2.7 percent ($243 per employee).

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For more information, contact ODJFS Communications, (614) 466-6650.