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Remote job seekers can’t get unemployment checks in NH. This bill would change that.

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6 months ago

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Remote job seekers can’t get unemployment checks in NH. This bill would change that.

CONCORD — Joy Curth couldn’t figure out why she was denied unemployment after getting laid off from her remote job.

Curth, who also owns Societe, a tea store located in Portsmouth, said she was laid off from a New Hampshire-based technology company in 2022. She applied for fully remote jobs while unemployed, thinking this would fulfil the requirement of a weekly work search.

But as the law is written now, people who are “not available for work outside a home” are disqualified for unemployment benefits. This means that applying for remote jobs does not count toward the weekly job applications needed to get unemployment benefits in New Hampshire.

Curth brought her problem to state Sen. Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, D-Portsmouth, who sponsored Senate Bill 330, seeking to update the statute.

“More people are able to find work remotely and yet our state does not have any flexibility or process to protect this large number of people as they transition from one employment opportunity to the next,” said Perkins Kwoka. “SB 330 recognizes this modern reality and accommodates the different ways that citizens can work by allowing remote work just to count towards continuing eligibility for unemployment benefits.”

Post-COVID, remote work common

A 2023, a Pew Research Center poll found 14% of employed adults in the United States work remotely all of the time.

Curth said New Hampshire’s current unemployment benefits law is from a time when “it was perceived that if you’re working from home, you’re limiting your opportunities.”

“That is not the current modern state of our society and economy. You actually are significantly expanding your opportunities,” she said to the House Labor, Industrial and Rehabilitative Services Committee during a hearing in late April. “Every employee here worked from home during COVID, right?” 

Those who testified mentioned many reasons why someone might be looking for remote work, from an increase in remote jobs after the COVID-19 pandemic to needing to take care of an elderly relative or a newborn baby.

“Unemployment should certainly take into account that they might still be looking for a work at home situation and especially might have childcare as part of their incentive to work from home and feed that baby now and then,” said Rep. Michael Cahill, D-Newmarket.

Should unemployment benefits in New Hampshire be updated?

The committee supported the underlying bill, which is likely to pass when it comes to the House Thursday. But Rep. Mark MacKenzie, D-Manchester, also added an amendment to update the unemployment benefits table. Adopted in 2007, he said it is “long overdue” for an update. The amendment would increase the maximum weekly benefit from $427 to $672, and is identical to a bill MacKenzie had previously filed, HB 1522, which had been tabled.

The committee, which is made up of 10 Democrats and 9 Republicans, voted 11-8 in support of passing SB 330 with the amendment. However, the clerk for the House Speaker Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, said he would rule the amendment out of order.

“I’m asking people to vote for it simply so we can send a message to the world that we think is an issue that’s in need of being addressed,” said Rep. Brian Sullivan, D-Grantham.

Even though the amendment is unlikely to pass for that reason, the underlying bill is still recommended ought to pass. It passed the Senate in February. If the bill passes without amendment, it will be on to Gov. Chris Sununu’s desk for potential signing.

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