Kentucky Unemployment Insurance

Kentucky Unemployment Insurance law protects employees who are let go or whose hours are reduced through no fault of their own.  Benefits can be total or partial, and are paid through employer payments.

To be eligible to draw benefits, an employee must be available for suitable work, make a reasonable effort to obtain suitable work, and have earned at least $750 in one quarter of a base period. Other wage qualifications are spelled out by the Kentucky Department of Labor.

In part, suitable work is determined by examining the degree of risk involved to the worker’s health, safety and morals; the worker’s experience and prior earnings; the length of the unemployment and prospects of securing local work in the customary occupation and the distance of the work from the worker’s residence.

When an employee loses a job, they must immediately:

Report to the nearest Unemployment Insurance Office and present their Social Security Card.

• Register for work and file a claim for benefits.
• After filing an initial claim, file continuing claims for each week of unemployment.
• The weekly benefit rate is 1.3078 percent of the total base period wages. The range of unemployment benefits is from $39.00 to $401.00 per week.

A worker may claim partial benefits when they are still employed but are working less than normal full-time hours, and the reduced hours are due to lack of available work, and not to any other cause – such as illness, disability, vacation leave, or personal reasons.
An employee may be qualified to receive benefits if they can show that they quit with good cause attributable to the employment and there are no other eligibility issues present. They may also collect if they were fired for reasons other than misconduct connected with the work.

Claimants in some states have to serve a waiting week before they can draw benefits, but Kentucky does not. Employers must post a notice informing employees of their unemployment benefits in the workplace.