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Comment by notlisted | Hacker News Reader

If you're self-employed and even if you are able to make the same wage for 10 years, and pay taxes, you get zilch. Makes no sense to me.

By the way, the max is 73 and 63 weeks (was 99)

http://jobsearch.about.com/od/unemployment/a/unempextension....

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Did you pay into unemployment insurance? I doubt it very much -- self-employed persons typically don't have to pay into it, unless they in turn have employees.

Well, if you employ yourself and you could collect unemployment insurance after laying yourself off, some would consider that gaming the system.

If I work as a consultant for 10 years and on average make $100k a year, I have to pay taxes on said $100k, like everyone else. Actually as a self-employed person I pay more than those with jobs, yet if the economy or my business collapses and I get no clients for 6 months, why would I not be entitled to collect on what I've paid into the system?

Someone who came right out of college, made $50k for two years, is entitled to double digit weeks of unemployment benefits.

Edit: Egg on face. Just looked up the details, while I pay taxes, it seems none of these go towards unemployment insurance, unlike when you're employed, which is why the self-employed don't qualify. Lots of differences from state-to-state too, but in NY it's impossible to "participate" unless you set it up as an s-corp.

If you really want to you can set yourself up as an employee, pay taxes as such, and be eligible for unemployment benefits.

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