Groups with special rules

Learn the specific requirements to claim unemployment benefits if you were a corporate officer, educational employee or federal employee.

Corporate officers

Corporate officers usually are not covered by unemployment insurance in Washington. However, you may be eligible for benefits if you:

  • Were voluntarily covered by the corporation.
  • Don't own at least 10% of stock in the corporation.
  • Aren't related to another officer who owns at least 10% of stock in the corporation.
  • Earn less than 25% of your base-year wages from the corporation.
  • Permanently resign or are permanently removed as an officer.

Requirements for voluntary coverage

If your company provides voluntary coverage, we need to approve it. Even if you have approved coverage, you still may not be eligible for benefits.

Educational employees

Educational employees often have breaks between periods of employment. Your employer will give you "reasonable assurance" if you're likely to continue working after a traditional break period (i.e., after a summer break). Under federal law, this means you might not be eligible for unemployment benefits.

If you don't have reasonable assurance, you might be eligible for benefits.

Definition of educational employee

An educational employee is anyone who works at any level of education, including K-12 and higher education. This includes but is not limited to:

  • Teachers.
  • Administrators.
  • Principals.
  • Librarians.
  • Bus drivers.
  • Custodians.
  • Professors.

Eligibility for educational employees

If you're an educational employee, we'll ask three questions to decide if you're eligible for benefits:

  • Does your situation meet all of the prerequisites below?
    • You received a work offer from someone with proper authority (may be verbal, written, or implied.)
    • Your job after the break is in the same capacity as the one you had before the break.
    • You're working in the same type of institution as the one you worked in before the break.
    • Your job after the break pays at least 90% of the wages you earned in the previous academic year or term.
  • Do you have a valid contract?
  • Do you have reasonable assurance that you'll continue working after a break period?

If the answer to all of these questions is "no," you might be eligible for benefits.

Educational employees with multiple employers

If you have multiple employers, you can only apply for benefits during break periods by using wages from employers who did not give you reasonable assurance.

Educational employees who quit voluntarily

If you have reasonable assurance that you will continue working after a scheduled break, you may not be eligible for benefits if you quit voluntarily.

Washington laws and rules about educational employees

Federal employees

You may be eligible for benefits if you were a federal employee in the past 18 months, and:

  • Your official duty station of your last federal employer was in Washington, or
  • You are a current Washington resident and you:
    • Are a U.S. citizen and your official duty station was outside the U.S., or
    • Have worked in Washington after your last federal employer.

What federal employees need to have when applying for benefits

Make sure you have the following forms and information before applying for benefits.

Unemployment forms for federal employees

You'll receive these forms from your federal civilian employer:

Details from the SF8 or SF50 forms
  • Your position title (box 7 on SF50).
  • The state or country of your last official duty station (box 39 on SF50).
  • The name of the federal civilian employer or agency (from SF8 or box 46 on SF50).
  • The 3-digit federal agency code for your employer (from SF8 or box 47 on SF50).

Details about your previous job

  • Start and end dates.
  • Hourly pay rate and gross monthly pay.