Unemployment Insurance Kentucky

For years it was on first $8000, moved to $9000 for 2012, $9300 following year until it tops out in a short time at $12,000. For an established company like ours we have a low % rate because we have built up a large reserve. For a company starting out it is 10%, just another example of making it more difficult for a small business starting out. It goes from $800 on each employee to $1200, does not seem like much but it just adds on to the cost of doing business. Ten employees = $12,000 for the year.

Many people who aren't in the management side of small businesses really don't appreciate how much government has done to hurt small business creation and growth.

IMO the #1 is the employment taxes including unemployment. It's another cost in a business that is going to be running razor thin for a while at least, it's money out of pocket to employees who generally have to work harder to help that business get going, and the added paperwork and hassles are a bigger cost than people think.

The paperwork alone for payroll is a nightmare with all kinds of rules you don't have time to learn, so you pay a company to do it and that's another effective tax. Then you hope they did it right.

Don't get me started on the fraudulent claims. kentucky cuts the first check before they even send the paperwork to the employer to verify the claim. I kid you not, it happened to me. He was fired b/c he didn't show up for work b/c we later found he was in jail in Cincy on a DUI charge. Didn't hear from him for a week, it was his dad who called to tell us the story and he never did reappear at the office.

Then he files unemployment and they cut him a check. I sent back the paperwork and they went after him b/c it was so clear cut (being in jail is what did it), but I've dealt with others who were fired for cause and they still get their money. If this hadn't been criminal he'd have gotten his too.

It's dang near impossible for a small business to hire that first person. You step over that threshold and the start up costs are far more than it's worth to hire just one person. It's a huge drag on job creation since the vast majority of new jobs are created by small businesses.

Let's not forget that unemployment is 90 weeks now, what a drag on your reserve. As an established business and low % rate you can stand this sort of thing, just like lower workers comp rate (discounts for good experience etc etc), but a new company gets the highest rates and expected to establish a business before they go under. A lot of overhead for a start up company.