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Know the Law: Unemployment Compensation

A military move is stressful in many ways and the loss of income when the civilian spouse is forced to quit his or her job shouldn’t add to the financial burden. That’s why the majority of states have passed laws approving unemployment compensation for Military Spouses. Normally, employees aren’t eligible for compensation if they voluntarily leave their job, but state legislators have recognized that Military Spouses aren’t resigning voluntarily; they are quitting to accompanying their Service Member to a new state.

What is Unemployment Compensation?

Unemployment compensation provides weekly income to workers who can’t find jobs. Each state has different requirements that must be met in order to receive unemployment compensation, such as minimum hours worked for the employer, the reason for leaving employment, geographical distance between employer and your new location, and if you are actively pursuing other employment opportunities from your new location.

How to Apply for Unemployment Benefits

1. First, know your rights. Research if you currently live in a state that allows the civilian spouse of a transferred Service Member to receive unemployment benefits. Eligibility is based on the rules within the state you left, not your new state of residence. As of August 2012, 45 states and the District of Columbia permit Military Spouses to claim unemployment due to a permanent change of station or PCS. Please note that in Virginia, home to the Pentagon, Naval Station Norfolk, Fort Myers, and Marine Corps Air Base Quantico, Military Spouses are ineligible.

2. Document, document, document. When quitting your job, be sure to notify your current employer in writing that the reason for your resignation is a military relocation. Always keep a copy of this letter. Most states allow you to resign or quit 30 days before the report date listed on your spouse’s orders, so be careful about quitting too early if you plan to file for unemployment. If you are forced to move on shorter notice, document this situation to support your unemployment claim in your new state.

3. File and follow-up. File for interstate unemployment benefits in your new state’s unemployment insurance office as soon as possible to ensure you don’t miss any deadlines. An interstate claim allows you to receive unemployment compensation from your previous state while meeting the job searching requirements from your new state. Always attach a copy of your spouse’s military orders to your unemployment application, even if the office doesn’t initially request them and list your spouse’s military relocation as the reason you quit your job on all forms. You also may need to provide an official written letter from your spouse’s chain of command as proof of the transfer.

After filing for unemployment and being granted wages, your residency state will require you to register with a local workforce center. You need to show evidence that you are actively seeking employment. In some states, workers are required to attend resume or interviewing classes and even obtain career counseling.

Freeloader Stigma

I first heard about unemployment compensation for Military Spouses from a friend and Air Force spouse in Okinawa, Japan. Prior to that, I never considered filing for unemployment because I mistakenly assumed that it was only for workers who were laid off. As a Navy newlywed and a recent college graduate, I thought my former employer would be penalized, if I filed. This is false. Generally, the unemployment compensation a Military Spouse receives comes from the state’s general unemployment fund, not the employers’ account. I also thought that I didn’t qualify because I choose to relocate with my husband and that my friends would think I’m a freeloader or lazy if I cashed unemployment checks. With three military moves in seven years, I have completely changed my opinion on this issue. Now I encourage my friends to apply for the benefits and lobby for law changes in states where Military Spouses are ineligible for unemployment.

Here’s the bottom line: Always file for unemployment compensation when you are relocating. If you are denied compensation, appeal the decision and be prepared to explain your situation at a hearing. You have a right to this weekly income. Just because your Service Member volunteered for the military doesn’t mean that you voluntarily quit your job.

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Military Spouse Underemployment: The Elephant in the Room

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As I was reading a recent Air Force Times article on the difficulty DOD is having in tracking the success of the Military Spouse Employment Programs, I found it hard not to be a little cynical although I do appreciate that obtaining metrics on these type of programs is an incredibly difficult task. My cynicism stems from my perception that there seems to be so much emphasis on plugging a Military Spouse into a job that I think some people might be forgiven for thinking that Military Spouse employment is a charitable cause rather than a wise business decision for an employer.

There is a lot of talk about the success of Military Spouse employment programs…. “Defense officials say that since the program was launched in June 2011, more than 32,323 military spouses have been hired by MSEP employer partners”… but I do wonder how many of these spouses would have been hired regardless. I applaud the employers who are coming on board with these programs and making a public commitment to hire Military Spouses, and I think it is fantastic that DOD is trying to implement strategies to help Military Spouses - but the reality is that many of these employers (DeCA, CNIC, MCCS, Navy Exchange) were employing Military Spouses long before MSEP evolved. To evaluate the real success of the DOD Military Spouse employment initiatives, I think we need to be looking at the change in percentage of Military Spouses hired by these employers over recent years, rather than the raw number of overall jobs for spouses.

More importantly, we also need to be tracking the types of jobs which are being filled, and the appropriateness of these jobs for the educational background and professional experience of the new hire. The Military Spouse community reflects the make-up of the wider community - there are spouses from every different educational background and we all have very different career aspirations - some of us do not wish to work, and some of us want to become the President of the United States or the CEO of Lockheed Martin one day.

If we are trying to implement Military Spouse employment initiatives that are effective, we need to ensure that these programs serve their target audience and this is tough for any one program to do when the target audience is as diverse as the Military Spouse community. There are certainly some great companies which have come on board with MSEP, but I wonder if all their jobs are in Washington D.C. - I live in a major city and have a Masters degree yet the only options for my zipcode were a sales consultant for a telephone company, a bank teller and babysitting. By taking one of these jobs, I statistically appear as a success story - a Military Spouse who has located a job….but am I really?

Almost every Military Spouse I know has been underemployed at some time in the last 5 years. Many are like me - I left a mid-level management position when I married into the military, and then took a $13 dollar an hour teachers aide position in a small town after unsuccessfully trying to find a mid-level position for 2 months. I want to work and as I see the year ticking away, and the date of my next PCS approaching - I take whatever I can get. I know one of the Front Desk Staff at my local Base Childcare Center has a Masters Degree in Human Relations and the Military Spouse Professionals Forum on Linked In regularly features posts from frustrated Military Spouses who have invested an incredible amount of time and money in higher level education but are unable to find fulfilling employment commensurate with their qualifications. A recent RAND Study on Measuring Underemployment in Military Spouses found that 38% of employed Military Spouse wives are underemployed by educational mismatch compared with only 6% of a representative group of civilian wives. I think this is the elephant in the room - everyone knows it is a problem, but nobody is quite sure what to do about it so we just focus on the numbers of Military Spouses employed or hired instead.

So what can we do to address underemployment? I certainly don’t have all the answers but as Career Minded Military Spouses I think we need to start the conversation on this issue and at least throw some suggestions on the table. Here are my thoughts.

  • Strategically develop some tailored Military Spouse Employment Programs which target different groups within the Military Spouse community. While an online job board may work well for entry-level positions, it may not be as appropriate for some of the middle management and executive level positions that many Military Spouses target. Perhaps a Military Spouse Grad and Post Grad Employment Program could utilize Recruiters who worked individual Military Spouse cases in specific locations and could liaise directly between companies representatives and a Military Spouse who had just received orders.

 

  • Expand the resources and staffing of the Family Employment Readiness Program run through the ACS, FFSC and Airman and Family Readiness Centers in order to empower them to network and advocate directly with the Local Defense Contracting Companies and Local Civilian Employers at the grass roots level, rather than just providing employment counseling and advice.

 

  • Designate a portion of Base Federal and MWR positions at all levels as Designated Military Spouse positions in a similar way to the arrangement that overseas Bases use to advertise positions for Local Military Spouse applicants only.

 

  • Support professional development for all Military Spouses, regardless of educational level or Service Member’s rank. MYCAA is a classic example of program which initially offered a great opportunity for career minded Military Spouses to advance and refine their professional qualifications, but has been scaled back to support basic qualifications for typical entry level positions.

Underemployment of Military Spouses is a difficult but important issue to address as it affects the morale and quality of life of the Military Spouse and their family. Recurrent underemployment of the Military Spouse can become a significant deterrent to the long term retention of the Service Member. As a nation I believe that we also have a moral obligation to ensure that we are setting up our Military Families, who have sacrificed so much, for success. Many Military Spouses may need or want to become the primary breadwinner following the Service Member’s separation or retirement from service. We must also recognize that some Military Spouses may find themselves as the sole income earner after a death, injury or separation from their partner. A track record of underemployment does not set our Military Families up for long term satisfaction or financial stability.

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January…Nobody’s Favorite Month!

As we pack away the Christmas decorations, get started on those New Year resolutions, and wonder how 2012 could possible have disappeared so fast…it is important to remember that January can be a hard month for many within the Military community. December usually keeps us busy. I for one had a much more impressive social calendar during December than I normally do. The excitement of the holidays, the break from work, the visits with family, the overflowing mailbox, the regular social events and of course the food! But January - my calendar is looking a little blank, and this is a bit depressing after the hustle and bustle of December.

January can be a particularly tough month on those Military Spouses who are seeking meaningful employment. I remember back to the end of 2010 when I was between jobs over the New Year period. Something about dates on resumes, or perhaps years on the chalk board of my life, made me feel a little more down than usual about my lack of employment. As January arrived, I was no longer pre-occupied with the busyness of December, and so the job gap in my life seemed more of a gaping hole than it had felt the previous month. Perhaps the idea of New Year’s Resolutions seemed pointless when I so desperately wanted a job, or perhaps I just felt despondent and thought I could never find a position in the following year that I loved as much as the one I had resigned from.

In my experience, Military Spouses seeking employment go one of two ways in January - they approach their job search with a renewed vigor…or they start to give up. As the New Year begins, it is easy to start thinking that the next PCS is not that far away, that it would be better to cherish the time with friends and family you will be moving away from in the next year, or that the heartbreak of applying over and over again is just getting too much.

So as we approach January and I think of some of my job seeking Military Spouse friends - a supply chain wizard in El Paso with the ability to inspire and energize every workplace she has been part of, a Media and Communications specialist in Hawaii with a list of tangible accomplishments I can only dream of being able to add to my resume, and an engaging HR Manager in Montgomery, Alabama that I met online through In Gear Career, I want to say “Don’t give up!”. Every career-minded Military Spouse out there knows how tough it can be to leave a job because of a PCS or a marriage into the military. Most career-minded Military Spouses can also relate to the struggle to find an equivalent job in the next location. There will always be particularly tough geographic areas, or job interviews which don’t go your way and leave you wondering if your Military Spouse status was a behind the scenes reason.

These are the three best pieces of advice I have been given over the years on how to “Stay Strong when the Job Hunt is Long”.

1. Make a weekly job hunt schedule. It is easy to start the job search campaign enthusiastically but if it takes a while, it is also easy to start falling off the pace. Make a weekly schedule which addresses all aspects of the job search, such as allocating time to research companies, time to make direct approaches to employers in person, via phone or email, and time to tailor each application and cover letter. Programming your days will keep you “on target” and also make sure that you don’t start feeling guilty about the personal time you take (and program!) each day to walk the dog or go to the gym.

2. Build a support network (job search team) around yourself. Don’t let your job hunt become something that you do alone, from the isolation of your home and laptop computer. Engage your family, friends and Military community. Speak about your career goals, seek a Mentor, and reach out and allow those around you to network on your behalf. Your support network will give you encouragement, can provide a shoulder to lean on and may well be the source of your next job lead.

3. Stay engaged with your field. Maintain the passion for your field as well as your occupational currency by finding ways to remain engaged. You may not previously have had the time to actively participate in Linked In or In Gear Career online group conversations so consider sharing your knowledge and experience to get your name out there. Research the many free webinars and training sessions available through the internet and use these to continue your professional development. Become a Mentor or seek a Mentor. Volunteer.

Looking for a new job is always tough and as Military Spouses we find ourselves doing this regularly, and often in new locations where we may not know that many people. If you find yourself in this position as we start 2013, stay strong and count me in as part of your job search team. I’m rooting for you!