West Virginia Senate Bill 841 became law without the governor’s signature on Mar. 27, changing the wage base on which employers pay state unemployment insurance taxes to the first $9,500 of employees’ wages. It also froze the maximum weekly benefit amount for workers at $662. The law will take effect Jan. 9, 2025.
The enacted version of the bill was approved in the legislature on Mar. 9 and sent to Gov. Jim Justice (R) on Mar. 19.
The West Virginia Senate passed a different version of the bill on Feb. 28, which proposed reducing the duration of unemployment benefits from 26 to 24 weeks and reducing the unemployment benefit amounts by 5% every four weeks a worker claimed benefits. The introduced version also would have reduced the maximum weekly unemployment insurance benefit from 66.3% to 55% of the state’s average weekly wage, not to exceed $550. These provisions were not included in the enacted version of the bill.
