10,000 households with million-dollar incomes collected unemployment
by Stephen Dinan · The Washington TimesTen thousand households that earned more than $1 million collected unemployment benefits in 2024, receiving nearly $100 million in taxpayer money, according to data shared with The Washington Times.
Engineers were the most common millionaire claimants, followed by software engineers, lawyers, executive managers and salespeople.
High-tax, Democratic-led states topped the list of locations where the millionaires who collected unemployment lived. California ranked first, followed by New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Washington.
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Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican who has tracked this issue for years, obtained the data from the IRS and shared it with The Times. She said it is wrong for those so well off to take the money.
“Because unemployment programs are primarily funded by taxing employers, this mandate is effectively a reverse-Robin Hood tax that takes from hardworking small businesses to reward the well-off for not working,” Ms. Ernst said in a letter to the Labor Department last year. “While the costs may not sound like a lot to the big spenders in Washington or a millionaire, they sure do to the rest of us.”
The payouts should soon dry up, however. Ms. Ernst secured a provision in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act barring individuals who earn $1 million or more from collecting unemployment benefits.
Although states administer unemployment insurance and set payment rates, a 1964 Labor Department rule prohibits them from using income to limit eligibility, forcing states to pay benefits regardless of earnings.
Analysts have said tax filers with million-dollar incomes may receive unemployment for several reasons. For example, in a joint return, one spouse may earn a high income while the other is unemployed and claiming benefits.
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The Congressional Research Service, analyzing the issue in 2016, said imposing an income limit risks costing more money than it saves. An income limit might also deter eligible people from applying.
Still, the idea of paying the wealthy has not sat well with some senators for years.
Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma began pushing to end payments to millionaires. At one point in 2014, he got the Senate to approve an amendment on a 100-0 vote, but the legislation to which it was attached failed to clear the chamber.
After Coburn’s departure from the Senate, Ms. Ernst picked up the idea. Her proposal was approved by a unanimous 100-0 roll call vote, though Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee, spoke against the idea.
He described the move as an indirect mechanism that would undermine the broader principle of unemployment as a universal social insurance program, according to the Congressional Record.
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“This is about turning a social insurance program that everyone pays into, a program built on earned benefits, into something Republicans can cut until it disappears,” Mr. Wyden said.
Ms. Ernst’s provision calls on states to require unemployment beneficiaries to self-certify that their income was below $1 million and to follow up with income verification.
States are also directed to recover money paid to millionaires.
“Unemployment compensation is intended to temporarily support workers who lose their jobs involuntarily, presumably with no other source of income, to help bridge the gap until they have secured new jobs,” Ms. Ernst said. “By ending these freebies for freeloading fat cats, my law protects the program for those who rely on this financial support between jobs.”
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The change took effect when the law was enacted on July 4, 2025, though it is unclear how it will be implemented. Ms. Ernst has prodded the Labor Department to develop plans to enforce the law.
The number of millionaires collecting unemployment peaked during the pandemic emergency, with nearly 15,000 households reporting million-dollar incomes collecting benefits in 2021. Among those claiming benefits, more than 300 households reported at least $10 million in income, according to the IRS data provided to Ms. Ernst.
The number fell after 2021, dropping to 5,773 millionaires in 2022, then 7,400 in 2023 and 10,100 in 2024. The payouts increased as well, from $57.6 million in 2022 to $69.8 million in 2023 and $97.4 million in 2024.
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Stephen Dinan
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