Unemployment

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Texas employees are ineligible for unemployment benefits if the are terminated from employment for "misconduct connected with the work."  Misconduct connected with the work includes "mismanagement of a position of employment by action or inaction, neglect that jeopardizes the life or property of another, intentional wrongdoing or malfeasance, intentional violation of a law, or violation of a policy…

The Texas Supreme Court has issued an opinion this morning holding that noncompetition agreements supported by stock options and good will are not unenforceable as a matter of law.  I previewed this case here.  As I have time to digest the majority, concurring and dissenting opinions, I’ll provide more thoughts on this case. You…

Senate Bill 314 was enrolled in the Texas Legislature and would exclude, from an employer’s unemployment tax account (i.e., no chargeback), unemployment benefits paid to an employee who left employment because he or she (or their immediate family member) is a victim of sexual assault.  Bill text here.

 

There continues to be a substantial increase in the number of unemployment claims filed by Texas employees. This increase has the potential to raise the unemployment tax rate for employers that do not take proactive steps to manage their Texas unemployment tax rates.  The state unemployment tax rate is the only business tax an employer can control.

To understand how to…

The Texas Workforce Commission has published the unemployment tax rates for 2011.  The minimum tax rate increases from .72 percent to .78 percent.  The maximum tax rate; however, will drop from 8.60 percent to 8.25 percent.  The average unemployment tax rate will increase from 1.83 to 2.03 percent and the average experience tax rate will be 1.96…

Last week, the El Paso Court of Appeals affirmed a judgment in favor of an employer on an unemployment benefit eligibility issue where the employee, abandoned his job.  The employee was a Nationwide Financed Agent from January 2003 until November 2005.  A Financed Agent is an employee-agent of Nationwide who starts an insurance agency and operates it to the…

In this post I want to outline a series of steps an employer can implement that may decrease its unemployment tax rate and taxes.  The state unemployment tax rate is the only tax rate that an employer can effectively control.  Because the tax rate is calculated over a three year rolling average, it may take a year or two to start…