Quote:
Originally Posted by cc_in_oh
True, but high-cost states tend to have much higher unemployment benefits. I think I saw that the CA average is over $600. The feds can't hand out different benefits for different states any more than they can for social security. (I suppose they do in a way for Medicare, covering the same 80% at a high-cost NYC provider as a low-cont one in WV)...
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Correct. Unemployment is a state thing, and will vary by state. Medicare is Federal, and won't.
States are having a lot of fun processing the enormous volume of unemployment claims (and will have more fun coming up with the money to pay them.)
A chap I know in MA posted to a mailing list we are both on about getting laid off after 14.5 years with his employer, and trying to process it. I blinked and then remembered "Oh, yes. You are a tech for a company that sells and rents audio and video gear for events. Events are on indefinite hold. No money is coming in, so no surprise you are one of hundreds of employees over multiple locations that got cut." I told him not to take it personally, treat it as an enforced vacation, and file for unemployment. He would now have an opportunity to get around the the list of things he was thinking about doing but too busy working to do them. He was the guy who assembled gear orders for events, tested to make sure it all worked before it got loaded in the truck, and fixed stuff that broke. I think he'll be one of the first folks rehired when business resumes and there are events needing gear his employer will supply.
But yes, costs of living can be dramatically different. I saw a comparison of IT salaries by location a while back, and the same job with the same knowledge and experience requirements might pay three times as much in San Diego, CA as it would in Wheeling, WV. The reason was cost of living. It costs enormously more to
live in San Diego than it does in Wheeling. Employers have to pay that much so workers can afford to live there. (And the chap in Wheeling might do better in terms of
disposable income than the one in San Diego, with a consequently better quality of life. Assuming, of course, that you want to
live in Wheeling.
)
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Dennis