Maximum weekly benefits paid to jobless Iowans and to workers injured on the job will increase between $13 and $16 per week on July 5, Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) announced Tuesday. The rise in benefits was triggered by an increase in wages covered by unemployment insurance. The average annual wage for insured Iowa workers increased to $36,732.03 in 2008 from the 2007 level of $35,513.19.

The new benefit payment schedules will apply to people who file new unemployment insurance claims after July 5 and to workers who are injured on or after July 1. For example, the weekly benefit for an unemployed worker with three dependents will increase from $409 currently to $423, and the maximum permanent partial disability weekly maximum will increase to $1,300.

Under Iowa law, the number of people covered by unemployment insurance and their gross wages are primary elements of a formula IWD uses each year to compute maximum and minimum benefit amounts paid to jobless workers. Out of an estimated total labor force of 1,676,000, a total of 1,471,985 workers were covered by the Iowa unemployment insurance program in 2008. About half of those eligible for unemployment insurance benefits have enough earnings to qualify for the maximum benefit.