Work Sharing
Basics

Work sharing is a type of unemployment benefit that provides employers an alternative to layoffs, by providing partial unemployment benefits to workers whose hours are reduced.  Work sharing benefits are paid out of state UI trust funds.  Work-sharing programs help businesses retain skilled workers, employees retain their jobs and benefits, and communities minimize the number of unemployed workers.

Current

State UI laws must be amended to establish work sharing programs. There are twenty-three (23) programs in 22 states and the District of Columbia.  Six of these (including DC) have established programs since 2009.  The text of the work-sharing bill passed in Maine in Spring 2011 can be found HERE.

Learn More

For more information on work sharing, see the work of the Center for Law and Social Policy, including their October 2011 Worksharing Fact Sheet and Work Sharing: An Alternative to Layoffs in Hard Times (2009);  AARP Public Policy Institute, Saving Jobs Through Worksharing  (2009)

Recent Research Highlights