First off, I wish I had found this program years ago! Apparently, it has been around since the 1980’s. In the past, I was forced to put away nearly $25,000 each year to help carry and pay my employees through our slow season of January – March. It was also the time when I had to cut hours and employees often got angry with me and created a walkout in my salon. Well, I finally did find this program, so moving forward is going to provide much, much less pressure to keep trained employees on staff and I hope it helps you too! NYS is sending emails to small businesses to help seasonal employers, keep staff during slow periods, now that all the PPP money has dried up. You may have the same email I received in your inbox
How it works is that you can apply at any time for a 13 month period and will need at least 2 employees on the program to qualify in NYS . The good news is that you can have several teams of employees at different reduced levels whose hours have been cut and the program will pay up to 60 % of their lost wages.
I received an email about a month ago that had a link to get more information about the program and responded. Well, the next business day, I received a call from a representative who prequalified my business pretty quickly, and then set me up with an account representative, who sent over all the application materials. They were super helpful and super excited to help me understand and use the program. I think it has been under-utilized in the past. Well, no more, because I am spreading the news to employee based businesses. Yes that is another stipulation. The program doesn’t apply if you utilize 1099 or booth rental status for your people in your business.
My team and I have done the research for you and have included links to get more information about the work share program in several states. Please feel free to update us so we can include it in the grid below if you find helpful links for any states that we were unable to locate. And please let us know if you utilize the program and how it helped save your business through this possible upcoming recession.
Feel free to email me at alayne@makemefab.com with any additional questions or to tell your walkout survival story.