NEW $100/WEEK UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT FOR MIXED EARNERS. YOU MAY BE ELIGIBLE.

The Mixed Earner Unemployment Compensation benefit is designed to provide financial assistance to gig workers, freelancers, and other self-employed individuals who receive artificially low unemployment benefits due to part of their income coming from W-2 wages.

Many professional musicians are mixed earners — those who earn income both as employees and freelancers — deserve support during the pandemic but fell through the cracks in the CARES Act.

Under the new stimulus bill, mixed earners who received at least $5,000 in self-employment income in 2019 are eligible for a $100 weekly benefit on top of the $300 federal pandemic unemployment supplement provided under the new legislation (in addition to whatever aid they qualify for under their state unemployment system).

The extra benefit seeks to correct a flaw in the CARES Act relief package passed in March, which shut out freelance and gig workers — who qualified for regular unemployment compensation — from receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits that would have reflected the true scope of their earnings.

To learn more, please go to Mixedearners.org.