CHAPTER 108
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE AND RESERVES
108.01 Public policy declaration.
108.025 Coverage of certain corporate officers and limited liability company members.
108.03 Payment of benefits.
108.04 Eligibility for benefits.
108.05 Amount of benefits.
108.06 Benefit entitlement.
108.065 Determination of employer.
108.066 Seasonal employers and seasons.
108.067 Professional employer organizations and leasing agreements.
108.068 Treatment of limited liability companies and members.
108.07 Liability of employers.
108.09 Settlement of benefit claims.
108.095 False statements or representations to obtain benefits payable to other persons.
108.10 Settlement of issues other than benefit claims.
108.101 Effect of finding, determination, decision or judgment.
108.105 Suspension of agents.
108.11 Agreement to contribute by employees void.
108.12 Waiver of benefit void.
108.13 Deductions from benefit payments.
108.135 Income tax withholding.
108.141 Extended benefits.
108.142 Wisconsin supplemental benefits.
108.145 Disaster unemployment assistance.
108.15 Benefits for public employees.
108.151 Financing benefits for employees of nonprofit organizations.
108.152 Financing benefits for employees of Indian tribes.
108.16 Unemployment reserve fund.
108.161 Federal administrative financing account.
108.162 Employment security buildings and equipment.
108.17 Payment of contributions.
108.18 Contributions to the fund.
108.19 Contributions to the administrative account.
108.20 Administrative account.
108.205 Quarterly wage reports.
108.21 Record and audit of payrolls.
108.22 Timely reports, notices and payments.
108.225 Levy for delinquent contributions or benefit overpayments.
108.23 Preference of required payments.
Ch. 108 Cross-reference
Cross-reference: See definitions in s.
103.001.
Ch. 108 Cross-reference
Cross Reference: See also ch.
DWD 100 to ch.
DWD 150, Wis. adm. code.
108.01
108.01
Public policy declaration. Without intending that this section shall supersede, alter or modify the specific provisions hereinafter contained in this chapter, the public policy of this state is declared as follows:
108.01(1)
(1) Unemployment in Wisconsin is recognized as an urgent public problem, gravely affecting the health, morals and welfare of the people of this state. The burdens resulting from irregular employment and reduced annual earnings fall directly on the unemployed worker and his or her family. The decreased and irregular purchasing power of wage earners in turn vitally affects the livelihood of farmers, merchants and manufacturers, results in a decreased demand for their products, and thus tends partially to paralyze the economic life of the entire state. In good times and in bad times unemployment is a heavy social cost, directly affecting many thousands of wage earners. Each employing unit in Wisconsin should pay at least a part of this social cost, connected with its own irregular operations, by financing benefits for its own unemployed workers. Each employer's contribution rate should vary in accordance with its own unemployment costs, as shown by experience under this chapter. Whether or not a given employing unit can provide steadier work and wages for its own employees, it can reasonably be required to build up a limited reserve for unemployment, out of which benefits shall be paid to its eligible unemployed workers, as a matter of right, based on their respective wages and lengths of service.
108.01(2)
(2) The economic burdens resulting from unemployment should not only be shared more fairly, but should also be decreased and prevented as far as possible. A sound system of unemployment reserves, contributions and benefits should induce and reward steady operations by each employer, since the employer is in a better position than any other agency to share in and to reduce the social costs of its own irregular employment. Employers and employees throughout the state should cooperate, in advisory committees under government supervision, to promote and encourage the steadiest possible employment. A more adequate system of free public employment offices should be provided, at the expense of employers, to place workers more efficiently and to shorten the periods between jobs. Education and retraining of workers during their unemployment should be encouraged. Governmental construction providing emergency relief through work and wages should be stimulated.
108.01(3)
(3) A gradual and constructive solution of the unemployment problem along these lines has become an imperative public need.
108.01 History
History: 1989 a. 77;
1997 a. 39.
108.01 Annotation
Wisconsin courts should not look to other jurisdictions, federal or state, in interpreting this chapter. National Labor Relations Board law does not constitute persuasive authority within Wisconsin unemployment law. Bernhardt v. LIRC,
207 Wis. 2d 292,
558 N.W.2d 874 (Ct. App. 1996),
95-3549.
108.01 Annotation
Effects of unemployment compensation proceedings on related labor litigation. Mazurak, 64 MLR 133 (1980).
108.015
108.015
Construction. Unless the department otherwise provides by rule,
s. 108.02 (26) shall be interpreted consistently with
26 USC 3306 (b).
108.015 History
History: 1991 a. 89.
108.015 Cross-reference
Cross Reference: See also ch.
DWD 101, Wis. adm. code.
108.02
108.02
Definitions. As used in this chapter:
108.02(1)
(1) Administrative account. "Administrative account" means the account established in
s. 108.20.
108.02(2)
(2) Agricultural labor. "Agricultural labor" means service performed:
108.02(2)(a)
(a) On a farm, in the employ of any person, in connection with cultivating the soil, or in connection with raising or harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity, including the raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training and management of livestock, bees, poultry, and fur-bearing animals and wildlife.
108.02(2)(b)
(b) In the employ of the owner or tenant or other operator of a farm, in connection with the operation, management, conservation, improvement, or maintenance of such farm and its tools and equipment, or in salvaging timber or clearing land of brush and other debris left by a hurricane, if the major part of such service is performed on a farm.
108.02(2)(c)
(c) In connection with the production or harvesting of any commodity defined as an agricultural commodity in s. 15 (g) of the federal agricultural marketing act, as amended (46 Stat. 1550, s. 3;
12 USC 1141j) or in connection with the ginning of cotton, or in connection with the operation or maintenance of ditches, canals, reservoirs, or waterways, not owned or operated for profit, used exclusively for supplying and storing water for farming purposes.
108.02(2)(d)
(d) In the employ of the operator of a farm in handling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, grading, storing, or delivering to storage or to market or to a carrier for transportation to market, in its unmanufactured state, any agricultural or horticultural commodity; but only if such operator produced more than one-half of the commodity with respect to which such service is performed.
108.02(2)(dm)
(dm) In the employ of a group of operators of farms, or a cooperative organization or unincorporated cooperative association of which operators of farms are members, in the performance of service described in
par. (d), but only if such operators produced more than one-half of the commodity with respect to which such service is performed.
108.02(2)(dn)
(dn) The provisions of
pars. (d) and
(dm) shall not be deemed to be applicable with respect to service performed in connection with commercial canning or commercial freezing or in connection with any agricultural or horticultural commodity after its delivery to a terminal market for distribution for consumption.
108.02(2)(e)
(e) As used in this subsection, the term "farm" includes stock, dairy, poultry, fruit, fur-bearing animal, and truck farms, plantations, ranches, nurseries, ranges, greenhouses or other similar structures used primarily for the raising of agricultural or horticultural commodities, and orchards.
108.02(4)
(4) Base period. "Base period" means the period that is used to compute an employee's benefit rights under
s. 108.06 consisting of:
108.02(4)(a)
(a) The first 4 of the 5 most recently completed quarters preceding the employee's benefit year; or
108.02(4)(b)
(b) If an employee does not qualify to receive any benefits using the period described in
par. (a), the period consisting of the 4 most recently completed quarters preceding the employee's benefit year.
108.02(4m)
(4m) Base period wages. "Base period wages" means:
108.02(4m)(a)
(a) All earnings for wage-earning service which are paid to an employee during his or her base period as a result of employment for an employer;
108.02(4m)(b)
(b) All sick pay which is paid directly by an employer to an employee at the employee's usual rate of pay during his or her base period as a result of employment for an employer;
108.02(4m)(c)
(c) All holiday, vacation and termination pay which is paid to an employee during his or her base period as a result of employment for an employer;
108.02(4m)(d)
(d) For an employee who, as a result of employment for an employer, receives temporary total disability or temporary partial disability payments under
ch. 102 or under any federal law which provides for payments on account of a work-related injury or illness analogous to those provided under
ch. 102, all payments that the employee would have been paid during his or her base period as a result of employment for an employer, but not exceeding the amount that, when combined with other wages, the employee would have earned but for the injury or illness;
108.02(4m)(e)
(e) Back pay that an employee would have been paid during his or her base period as a result of employment for an employer, if the payment of the back pay is made no later than the end of the 104-week period beginning with the earliest week to which the back pay applies;
108.02(4m)(f)
(f) All wages that an employer was legally obligated to pay in an employee's base period but failed to pay, or was prohibited from paying as a result of an insolvency proceeding under
ch. 128 or as a result of a bankruptcy proceeding under
11 USC 101 et seq.; and
108.02(4m)(g)
(g) All salary reduction amounts that are not wages and that would have been paid to an employee by an employer as salary during the employee's base period but for a salary reduction agreement under a cafeteria plan, within the meaning of
26 USC 125.
