Are you saying it's "payed" by the employer ?
Because if that's the case it's transposed income, and in effect the employee is paying it because it's a compensation that goes along with employment.
If that's the case it's a not so thinly veiled hidden tax.
The shell game of unemployment insurance is very similar to the shell game of social security.
Its completely supported by employers. Employees pay absolutely nothing into the system that supports unemployment.
Employers pay two taxes: FUI, which is Federal Unemployment Insurance, and SUI, which is State Unemployment Insurance. Its a tax on your entire payroll, levied each quarter along with SS and Medicare taxes, however most payroll companies, which I happen to use one, deduct it from your bank account each time you pay your people.
FUI is the federal portion and is pretty minimal, I think it's around 1.7 to 1.9 percent, and it's only up to 80K or so...I can't remember the exact figure.
The SUI, however, is much higher, more like 2.9 percent even if you've never laid anyone off. If you lay people off, it gets raised, and can get completely out of control; as high as 6.9 or 7.5 percent, again, on top of the federal, and again, on top of the 7.2 percent SS and Medicare taxes you have to pay per employee.
So with the two numbers combined, and added to your medicare and ssi tax you have to pay per employee, it averages around 10% to 11% of payroll.
As I said, in my case, that ends up being around $8K a year in payroll taxes alone--that's not including Federal or State income taxes AND Self Employment Tax of 12% on our net profits.
....Did I mention how much I f'ing hate taxes?
