About 10,000 households with incomes of $1 million or more collected unemployment benefits in 2024, according to IRS data reported Monday, September 28. Together they received nearly $100 million in taxpayer money. The reason is a Labor Department rule from 1964 that bars states from using income to limit who gets jobless benefits.
Quick Take
- About 10,000 households earning $1 million or more collected unemployment in 2024.
- They received nearly $100 million in jobless benefits.
- A 1964 Labor Department rule kept states from using income to limit who gets benefits.
- A 2025 federal law now bars people earning $1 million or more from collecting.
Millions Paid to High Earners
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa obtained the numbers from the IRS and shared them with reporters. The data cover tax year 2024. California, New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey had the most million-dollar households collecting benefits. Common jobs among the claimants included engineers, software engineers, lawyers, executive managers and salespeople.
This is not the first count. In 2025, Ernst released earlier IRS data showing that millionaires collected about $271 million in unemployment aid during the first two years of the Biden administration. Nearly 15,000 millionaires received checks in 2021 alone. The new numbers show the payouts kept flowing in 2024.
Why the Law Allowed It
Unemployment insurance was never built as a poverty program. Eligibility is tied to a person’s work history and past wages, not to how much money the household has. Since 1964, a Labor Department rule has barred states from using income to limit benefits. Under that rule, states had to pay eligible claimants no matter how much they earned.
Joint tax returns add another twist. One spouse can earn a large income while the other loses a job and files for benefits. On paper, that household shows up as a million-dollar household collecting unemployment. As long as the jobless worker met the state’s rules, the state could not turn the claim down because of the household’s income.
Congress Recently Changed the Rules
That decades-old rule did not last. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law in July 2025, bars people earning $1 million or more a year from collecting unemployment benefits. Ernst pushed the change as an amendment, and the Senate passed it with broad support from both parties. The law is expected to end these payouts.
That timing matters. The 2024 numbers reflect the old system, before lawmakers acted. The new limit applies to benefits going forward, so the next round of IRS data will show whether the payouts to million-dollar earners have stopped.
Divide Over Fixing the System
Critics on the right have used the millionaire data to argue that government programs need tighter guardrails against waste, echoing frustration that Washington hands out money without common-sense limits. Advocates for workers counter that unemployment insurance was designed as an earned benefit, not welfare, and that narrowing it could hurt workers with uneven pay or gaps between jobs.
Both sides agree on one thing: the public expects unemployment help to go to people who need it, even though the law was not built that way. The 2025 change draws a clear line at $1 million a year. Lawmakers will be watching the next round of data to see how it works.
For now, the numbers stand as a rare point of bipartisan frustration. Whether someone leans left or right, seeing million-dollar households collect unemployment checks meant for jobless workers in need strikes many Americans as a system that needed fixing.
Sources:
washingtontimes.com, congress.gov
