BILL REQ. #:  S-0185.1 

Read first time 01/13/2003.   Referred to Committee on Commerce & Trade.

     AN ACT Relating to the calculation of unemployment compensation benefits; and amending RCW 50.20.120.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1   RCW 50.20.120 and 2002 c 149 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Subject to the other provisions of this title, benefits shall be payable to any eligible individual during the individual's benefit year in a maximum amount equal to the lesser of thirty times the weekly benefit amount (determined hereinafter) or one-third of the individual's base year wages under this title: PROVIDED, That as to any week beginning on and after March 31, 1981, which falls in an extended benefit period as defined in RCW 50.22.010(1), as now or hereafter amended, an individual's eligibility for maximum benefits in excess of twenty-six times his or her weekly benefit amount will be subject to the terms and conditions set forth in RCW 50.22.020, as now or hereafter amended.
     (2) An individual's weekly benefit amount shall be an amount equal to one twenty-fifth of the average quarterly wages of the individual's total wages during the ((two quarters of the)) individual's base year ((in which such total wages were highest)). The maximum and minimum amounts payable weekly shall be determined as of each June 30th to apply to benefit years beginning in the twelve-month period immediately following such June 30th. Except as provided in RCW 50.20.125, the maximum amount payable weekly shall be seventy percent of the "average weekly wage" for the calendar year preceding such June 30th. The minimum amount payable weekly shall be fifteen percent of the "average weekly wage" for the calendar year preceding such June 30th. If any weekly benefit, maximum benefit, or minimum benefit amount computed herein is not a multiple of one dollar, it shall be reduced to the next lower multiple of one dollar.