"Volunteer Status"

[Dale Sr]

State: PA

I am about to become unemployed (layoff) and expect that I will need to collect unemployment for some time while seeking full time work in my field.

I am volunteer at a local public school. I am helping the business manager, athletic director, etc.. The district would like for me to start doing some things that will require me to become an official "employee" of the district --- things that volunteers are not allowed to do. I am happy to do these things, but I do not want to be paid for my services. I am not comfortable taking money from this School District. They have done more than enough for me in my life to ever accept money from them.

If they put me on payroll for $1/yr, to get me employee status so I could take on the additional work, will this prevent me from collecting unemployment?

Any suggestions on how to solve this dilemma?

 

[adjusterjack]

If they put me on payroll for $1/yr, to get me employee status so I could take on the additional work, will this prevent me from collecting unemployment?

According to the PA state website:

You must be able and available to accept suitable work, not refuse work when offered without good cause and participate in reemployment services if required. You'll also have to register for employment-search services at www.pacareerlink.pa.gov within 30 days after filing an application for benefits and actively seek work during each week that you claim UC benefits.

https://www.uc.pa.gov/unemployment-benefits/Am-I-Eligible/Pages/am-I-eligible.aspx

Whether the school pays you or not you risk losing benefits if you get called for suitable work, like right now, and you have to refuse it because you are tied up with something you are doing for the school that you can't leave. The can of worms gets bigger if you are on the payroll, even for $1.

I don't know how strict PA is on verifying your eligibility.

Whatever you do for the school while on unemployment should be based on you being able to stop what you are doing on a moment's notice if you are offered work elsewhere.

Only you can decide if it's worth the risk to do otherwise.

 

[Dale Sr]

Yes, I understand that if I get called for suitable work I would have to accept it. But I would still do some amount of volunteer work for the school even when working full time elsewhere -- just not as much.

At this point I am just wondering if being on the payroll for $1 would make me ineligible to collect.

 

[eerelations]

The school is legally prohibited from paying you $1 per year. Employers are legally required to pay their employees at least minimum wage for every minute of work they perform. So unless you plan on working only about 10 minutes per year, the school will be mandated by law to pay you more than $1 per year.

 

[Dale Sr]

The school is legally prohibited from paying you $1 per year. Employers are legally required to pay their employees at least minimum wage for every minute of work they perform. So unless you plan on working only about 10 minutes per year, the school will be mandated by law to pay you more than $1 per year.

Even if the employment was based on an individual employment contract?

 

[Zigner]

You can't be an "employee" at $1 per year. Your attempt to make an end-run around unemployment requirements won't work.

 

[cbg]

They cannot legally put you on the payroll for $1 per year. As an employee the minimum you can be paid is minimum wage times the number of hours you work.

 

[Dale Sr]

You can't be an "employee" at $1 per year.

How did this guy do it for 10 years?

https://www.citizensvoice.com/news/perrone-retires-as-nanticoke-superintendent/article_25a66abe-311b-5f5c-b992-c1d790bec02d.html

 

[adjusterjack]

Apparently not collecting unemployment compensation for those ten years. Probably nothing wrong with him being a volunteer. As for the school providing him benefits that's OK too if their insurance allowed it. I imagine he paid income taxes on the value of the benefits.

 

[Dale Sr]

Apparently not collecting unemployment compensation for those ten years. Probably nothing wrong with him being a volunteer. As for the school providing him benefits that's OK too if their insurance allowed it. I imagine he paid income taxes on the value of the benefits.

OK then, so one CAN be legally put on payroll for $1/year (which BTW he did receive, not $0, from what I was told).

So this brings us back to my original question:

If they put me on payroll for $1/yr, will this prevent me from collecting unemployment?

 

[Taxing Matters]

OK then, so one CAN be legally put on payroll for $1/year (which BTW he did receive, not $0, from what I was told).

No, he couldn't be an employee and get just $1/year unless a significant part of his duties involved teaching. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) executive employees are generally exempt from both the federal minimum wage law and overtime pay rules but one of the requirements for being an executive employee is that you must be getting a salary (currently) of at least $684/week. See Department of Labor (DOL) Fact Sheet #17B. There are several exceptions to that salary requirement. One of them is that a business owner who owns at least 20% of the business is exempt from the salary requirement. Another is that teachers, lawyers, and doctors are exempt from the salary requirement so long as they are actually working in those professions. The article notes that he had been a teacher during his career, but it's not clear to what extent his superintendent duties included teaching. The school district may well have violated federal law in making that arrangement with him. One other possibility is that the benefits the district provided him were worth enough to meet the salary requirement, though they'd have had to be pretty rich benefits for that.

 

[cbg]

There is nothing in that article that says he was paid a dollar a year. It says he works for NO pay.

There are occasions when one can be allowed to volunteer at NO pay. I don't know if this is one of them because I don't know what he did as a volunteer. There are no circumstances when you can be paid less than minimum wage times hours worked. That would be a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

 

[bcr229]

You can work for the school district at minimum wage, and donate your salary to various school clubs/boosters/charities/etc.

 

[Dale Sr]

He worked 60+ hours per week and got paid $1 per year. Fact.

Any chance my original question can be answered? Please try to focus.

 

[Taxing Matters]

He worked 60+ hours per week and got paid $1 per year. Fact.

And the school district likely violated federal minimum wage laws in doing so.

Any chance my original question can be answered? Please try to focus.

You'd need to ask a PA lawyer familiar with PA unemployment law or the state unemployment comp office that question. However, for what it's worth, I think you risk being denied benefits because you'd be an employee entitled to compensation for the work done. Section 401(e)(2)(ii) of the PA unemployment comp law states that a week shall not be considered a week of unemployment "if compensation has been paid or is payable with respect thereto". So if you are getting paid for that week or are entitled under the minimum wage law to be paid for that week, it would appear to me that you would be ineligible for unemployment for that week. But I'm not a lawyer licensed in PA nor an expert in the unemployment comp law of that state, so you should consider asking a lawyer in that state familiar with the PA unemployment law how your plan would impact your claim for benefits.