Who pays for unemployment?
In Michigan, employers pay a tax on the first $9,000 each employee makes. The amount of tax they pay is an “experience rate” which is set each year based on claims for unemployment the employer has had against it. And positive balance employer is an employer who has paid more into the system than they has been paid out in claims to former employees. A negative balance employer is one for whom more has been paid in claims than the employer paid into the system. An employer with a good experience rate probably is paying only around .06% tax on the first $9,000 an employee makes. A negative balance employer could be paying 3% or more. There is also a FUTA or Federal Unemployment Tax which employers pay, again based on payroll. Its usually somewhere around .05%, with credit given for amounts paid into the state systems, and the Federal Government uses that money to subsidize state systems. In Michigan, employees have to have worked at least 13 weeks for the employer. I don’t know what the
