Date: Jun 17, 2017
Cross-Border Employers Take Note: Employees Who Work Only 51% of Their Time in Minnesota Can Impact Your Unemployment Taxes
The Minnesota Court of Appeals recently decided an unemployment appeal that presented unique and important issues to employers who employ employees who work in more than one state. Superior Glass, Inc. is a Wisconsin company that employs people who work in both Wisconsin and Minnesota. Two such employees were Lucas Johnson and Shawn Strang, who both worked for Superior Glass in both states during 2015 and 2016. Superior Glass laid off both employees for a period of time in 2016, and they both claimed unemployment benefits in Minnesota because they both live there. The Department of Economic and Employment Development (DEED) used information regarding each employee’s hours worked, as broken down by day and job, to determine how many hours each employee had worked in Minnesota. DEED then used this information to determine which calendar quarters each employee worked more than 50% of their hours in Minnesota. DEED concluded that these quarters constituted “covered employment” because “the employment during the quarter [was] performed primarily in Minnesota,” and paid unemployment benefits based on their entire employment with Superior Glass during those quarters. DEED then informed Superior Glass that it would use the unemployment benefits paid to these employees to compute the future unemployment tax rate for Superior Glass. Superior Glass appealed DEED’s eligibility determination for the two employees. Read more.
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