Fact check: Are unemployment benefits in New Mexico “more generous” than in Texas?
Editor’s note: El Paso Matters collaborates with Gigafact produce “Fact sheet” investigate claims about issues that shape our community.
YES.
New Mexico offers higher unemployment benefits and is slightly more generous in terms of eligibility than Texas.
The weekly benefit in New Mexico is 52.5% of a claimant’s highest recent average weekly wage. Claimants can receive benefits for up to 26 weeks or 60% of wages earned in the 12 months prior to filing, whichever is less.
The weekly benefit in Texas is 4% of the applicant’s highest quarterly earnings. Applicants can receive benefits for up to 26 weeks or 27% of all wages earned in the 12 months before filing for benefits, whichever is less.
In both Texas and New Mexico, the maximum weekly benefit amount is $577. But New Mexico’s minimum benefit of $107 is higher than Texas’s $73.
In New Mexico, taxpayers are required to have received wages for at least two months of the previous year; in Texas, it is three months.
This fact brief is a response to conversations like this one.
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