CORRECTION: Difference Between Oregon Work Sharing and Partial Employment Unemployment Benefits Becomes Clearer.

CORRECTED. I corrected the calculation of constant reduced weekly benefit amount in table below for work sharing program; no other changes.
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At a time of record unemployment it's important to provide as much clear and timely guidance as possible. 

Although the Oregon work share unemployment program has been around since 1982, I found it surprisingly difficult to tease out the differences between the work share program and partial employment unemployment benefits. [In Federal parlance work share plans are called "Short Term Compensation" plans; not all states have approved plans which can vary by state just as other unemployment plans vary by state].

After reading more documents than I would like to admit, I think I figured out the key difference in Oregon:

1. In the Work Share program benefits are prorated based on the percentage reduction in work hours x the weekly benefit amount. 
2. In the partial employment program benefits are prorated by a formula that looks at income. IF the reduced income is higher than the weekly benefit amount, the worker gets NO unemployment benefit, 
3. The import of this is that higher income workers who may not be able to get any unemployment benefits under partial employment provisions CAN get unemployment benefits IF their Oregon employer requests and receives approval for a work share plan. 

I have prepared the table pasted below that compares other features of Oregon Short Term Compensation /Work Share unemployment benefits and Oregon Partial Employment unemployment benefits.

Programs forms and resources for the Oregon Work Share program can be found HERE.

I don't claim to be an expert on unemployment programs so feedback is welcome.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.