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Are female, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian claimants for unemployment insurance (UI) more likely than white non-Hispanic claimants to see their claims disputed by an employer? And are these UI claimants ultimately more likely to have their UI claims denied, either by the UI agency or following a dispute? In the paper, the researchers address these questions by examining UI administrative wage and claim records from Washington state during 2005:Q1–2013:Q4. Overall, female claimants in the sample were statistically significantly more likely than males to have their claims disputed or denied; however, once the researchers control for differences in observable characteristics of females’ claims, researchers find they were less likely to be disputed or denied than males’ claims in the sample. In particular, the findings suggest that females and males sort to employers with different propensities to dispute claims. Differences in denials and disputes by race/ethnicity are more difficult to characterize because they are divergent. Hispanic claimants were less likely than white non-Hispanics to have their claims disputed or denied; however, after accounting for observable characteristics of those claims, the differences were not statistically significant. Black, Asian, and American Indian claimants were more likely than White non-Hispanics to have their claims disputed or denied, in some cases after controlling for observables.

Citation

Lachowska, M., Woodbury, S. A. (2022). W.E. Upjohn Institute. Gender, Race, and Denied Claims for Unemployment Insurance: The Role of the Employer. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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This study was part of CEO’s Summer Data Challenge on Equity and Underserved Communities, and was produced outside of CEO’s standard research development process.