Benefits & Updates
Work & Income
Unemployment insurance and the income rules beside it — what a state pays each week, and who sets the formula.
Articles in this category (18)
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Work & IncomeUnemployment Benefits: How Much Could You Receive?
Unemployment insurance is run by your state, not by Washington. How prior wages set a weekly amount, how long it can last, and why the answer differs by state.
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Work & IncomeSSDI: How Social Security Decides You Are Disabled
SSDI asks two separate questions: have you worked long enough, and does your condition meet Social Security's definition of disability. How each test works.
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Work & IncomeSSI Income and Resource Limits: Do I Qualify and What Would It Pay?
SSI asks nothing about your work record. What the federal benefit rate pays, which income is ignored, and why the resource limit is the rule that surprises people.
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Work & IncomeNo Tax on Tips or Overtime? What the Deductions Do
Tips and overtime pay can now be deducted from federal income tax, within limits. Who qualifies, what counts, and why payroll and state taxes still apply.
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Work & IncomeWorking While on SSDI: The Trial Work Period
SSDI lets you test work: nine trial months, then 36 months when benefits are paid if earnings stay under the SGA limit. How it works and how to restart.
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Work & IncomeTicket to Work: Free Employment Support
Ticket to Work is a free SSA program for SSDI and SSI recipients aged 18 to 64. The help it offers, how to choose a provider, and protection from medical reviews.
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Work & IncomeMinimum Wage, Overtime and Unpaid Wages
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 and overtime is time and a half over 40 hours. Who is exempt, what you can recover, and how to file a free wage complaint.
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Work & IncomeFMLA: Who Gets Job-Protected Leave
FMLA gives eligible workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for a new child or serious health condition. Who is eligible, what is covered, how to ask.
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Work & IncomeLayoff Notice: What the WARN Act Requires
The WARN Act requires 60 days written notice of plant closings and mass layoffs by employers with 100 or more employees. Who is covered, who gets notice, remedies.
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Work & IncomeLost Your Job? A Checklist for the First 30 Days
After a layoff, several clocks start at once: unemployment, 60 days for health coverage and time to review a severance offer. A checklist in the order they come due.
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Work & IncomePart-Time Work and Unemployment: How Partial Benefits Work
Reduced hours can still qualify for unemployment. Learn how partial benefits are figured, why you must report every week's earnings and what work sharing is.
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Work & IncomeCan Gig Workers and Independent Contractors Get Unemployment?
Regular unemployment covers employees, not contractors, but the label on your paperwork does not decide it. See how states test it and what help exists either way.
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Work & IncomeWorking While on SSI: How Earnings Affect Your Benefit and Medicaid
On SSI, the first $85 of earnings is ignored and your check drops $1 for every $2 you earn after that. See the rules, the Medicaid protection and work incentives.
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Work & IncomeSSI vs. SSDI: What Is the Difference and Which Do You Need?
SSDI is earned through work credits and SSI is based on need. See how they differ on eligibility, payments, health coverage, waiting periods and getting both.
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Work & IncomeSSDI Back Pay: The Waiting Period, Retroactive Months and What You Receive
How SSDI back pay is figured: the five-month waiting period, up to 12 months of retroactive benefits, the representative's fee, SSI installments and taxes.
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Work & IncomeWhich Conditions Qualify for SSDI and SSI? The Blue Book and Compassionate Allowances
No condition qualifies on its name alone. How Social Security's Listing of Impairments, its Compassionate Allowances and your ability to work decide a claim.
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Work & IncomeHow to Apply for SSDI: The Application, the Paperwork and What Happens Next
Applying for SSDI online, by phone or in person: what to gather, the forms involved, how the medical decision is made and what to do if the answer is no.
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Work & IncomeDiscrimination at Work: How to File an EEOC Charge Before the Deadline
You generally have 180 days, or 300 in many states, to file a job discrimination charge with the EEOC. Who is covered, how to file and what happens afterward.