New York, NY—A new research brief from the National Employment Law Project (NELP) and the 75 Million Project reveals that unemployment insurance can be a lifeline for women who lose their jobs, but that unemployed women are less likely to receive benefits than their male counterparts and bring home lower benefits when they do. The brief, Why Women Need a Stronger Unemployment Insurance System, looks at specific policies that disadvantage unemployed women and includes policy recommendations for both states and the federal government to better support women seeking work.
Key findings:
- Unemployment insurance (UI) is vital for women: At the height of the pandemic in 2020, more than 20 million women received UI benefits (almost 1 in 6 adult women). Expanded eligibility and enhanced benefits pulled millions of women and their families out of poverty. Yet these expansions were allowed to expire.
- A UI system originally built for male workers excludes many working women: Just 25 percent of unemployed women received UI benefits in the first six months of 2025, compared to nearly 30 percent of unemployed men.
- Women receive lower UI benefits than men but need them more: Men’s UI payments were 10.6 percent higher than women’s in 2024, largely a result of gender pay disparities. Although women typically receive lower benefits, they also have less wealth to draw on and are more likely to be raising children on their own.
- Women of color face additional barriers: Black, Latina, and Indigenous women consistently face higher unemployment rates than white women due to systemic discrimination. Yet structural racism compounds the barriers they face in both qualifying for UI benefits and receiving adequate benefit levels.
“In states across the country, unemployment insurance is still structured around the model of a white, male, able-bodied, full-time worker who has a caregiving wife at home,” said Amy Traub, report author and senior researcher and policy analyst at NELP. “But that’s not what today’s workforce looks like. With the unemployment rate rising, both state and federal policymakers must act quickly to reform UI policy to better address the needs of women who lose their jobs. Strengthening unemployment insurance is essential to building a good-jobs economy.”
“Working women are under attack, and unemployment insurance is a critical source of economic security,” said Jocelyn Frye, President, National Partnership for Women and Families, and a leader of the 75 Million Project. “But in many states, unemployment benefits are too low. When women don’t get fair pay at work, the unemployment benefits based on their previous paychecks aren’t fair either. At a time of rising costs and concerns about affordability, we need to make sure women get the support they need.”
“Each month, thousands of women lose their jobs, but 3 out of 4 of them don’t receive the unemployment insurance benefits that would enable to them support their families while they look for work,” said Fatima Goss Graves, President and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, and a leader of the 75 Million Project. “Women of color face some of the most significant barriers to access and eligibility. This research exposes the urgent need to improve unemployment insurance to support women who are underserved or excluded from the system.”
The brief calls on state policymakers to expand eligibility for UI benefits to include women who are currently shut out in many states. For example, states should allow workers seeking part-time work—who are disproportionately women—to qualify for UI benefits regardless of whether they previously worked a part-time schedule. States should also ensure that women who are compelled to leave their jobs—for example, mothers who suddenly lose access to childcare and survivors fleeing intimate partner violence—are eligible for unemployment benefits. In addition, states should ensure UI benefit levels are adequate to support women and that benefits last long enough for women to find a good job.
Recommendations for Congress include passing the UI Modernization and Recession Readiness Act which would set national standards, ensuring that UI is adequate for women across all states.
For more information and to read the full brief, visit https://bit.ly/FixUIforWomen.
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