Oregon Employment Department Announces 2024 Rates for Unemployment Insurance and Paid Leave

From Oregon Employment Department:

By Rebeka Gipson-King

SALEM, Ore. — Today, the Oregon Employment Department announced the 2024 contribution rate for Paid Leave in Oregon and the 2024 tax rate for Unemployment Insurance. The department is mailing each employer their annual notice of the new rates. 

2024 Unemployment Insurance Tax Rate 

The department uses a statutory formula to establish the annual tax rate for employers. Employer taxes go into the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund in Oregon, which is the source of unemployment insurance benefits for Oregon workers. Workers do not contribute to this fund or to their unemployment benefits. 

As a self-balancing fund, Oregon’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund is one of the healthiest in the country. The trust fund balance also earns interest, which helps keep employers’ tax rates lower. The goal of the statutory formula is to reach a balance between revenue and expenditures, where the state takes in about the same amount of money in taxes as it pays out in benefits. Oregon’s trust fund has recovered so well from the pandemic that the state has been able to keep tax revenue lower than benefit payments for several years, and that will continue in 2024. 

The Unemployment Insurance tax rate for new employers will rise slightly for 2024, from a rate of 2.1% of taxable wages up to $50,900 per employee in the 2023 calendar year (tax rate schedule II) to a rate of 2.4% of taxable wages up to $52,800 for the 2024 calendar year (tax rate schedule III).  

Following the self-balancing formula laid out in the statute, the tax schedule for 2024 moved from Schedule II to Schedule III. The primary driver behind this change was wage growth in 2022. Higher wages in 2022 caused higher average weekly benefit payouts in 2023. Higher benefit amounts pushed Oregon into the next schedule for 2024.  

2024 Paid Leave Oregon Contribution Rate 

Both employers and employees pay contributions to the Paid Leave Oregon Trust Fund, which provides benefits for Oregon workers.  

The Paid Leave Oregon contribution rate for 2024 is 1% of employee wages and applies to up to $168,600 of wages. This is the Social Security taxable maximum wage amount for 2024. Contributions for Paid Leave in Oregon are divided between employees and employers, with 60 percent of the rate paid by employees and 40 percent by employers. 

“We want to thank Oregon businesses for all they do to promote economic stability in Oregon, even during challenging times,” Gerstenfeld said. “We know employers have faced significant challenges in the past several years, yet Oregon’s employers continue to focus on job growth, contributing to our economy and building a robust workforce.” 

### 

The Oregon Employment Department (OED) is an equal opportunity agency. OED provides free help so you can use our services. Some examples are sign language and spoken-language interpreters, written materials in other languages, large print, audio, and other formats. To get help, please call 503-947-1444. TTY users call 711. You can also send an email to communications@employ.oregon.gov.

El Departamento de Empleo de Oregon (OED) es una agencia de igualdad de oportunidades. El OED proporciona ayuda gratuita para que usted pueda utilizar nuestros servicios. Algunos ejemplos son intérpretes de lengua de señas e idiomas hablados, materiales escritos en otros idiomas, letra grande, audio y otros formatos. Para obtener ayuda, por favor llame al 503-947-1444. Usuarios de TTY pueden llamar al 711. También puede enviar un correo electrónico a communications@employ.oregon.gov.