Reemployment Trade Adjustment Assistance (RTAA) provides wage subsidies to individuals 50 years of age or older who return to work paying less than their trade-impacted employment.  RTAA, available to workers covered under Trade Act petition numbers greater than 70,000, pays fifty percent of the difference between the workers' wages at separation and wages in reemployment.  The maximum amount of RTAA benefits payable is $12,000. 

The eligible individual must be reemployed:

1. full time, working at least 35 hours per week in one or more jobs, or

2. part time -- at least 20 hours per week -- while also participating in TAA-approved training.  (When reemployed part time while in training, the RTAA subsidy is prorated.) 

Reemployment must not be expected to pay more than $55,000 per year or include a return to the employment from which the worker separated, meaning the firm or, if applicable, the firm subdivision, specified in the Trade Act certification applicable to the worker. 

The RTAA eligibility period is two years from the date of the worker’s qualifying reemployment or two years after the worker exhausts unemployment compensation based on his or her most recent separation from trade-impacted employment, whichever comes first.  If an individual has already received Trade Readjustment Allowances (TRA), the RTAA eligibility period will begin with the date of qualifying reemployment and will be reduced by the number of weeks of TRA received.  Prior TRA receipt will also reduce the maximum amount of RTAA potentially payable. 

Application instructions are included on form RTAA-1, the Reemployment Trade Adjustment Assistance (RTAA) Application. 

A worker 50 years of age or older who is covered under a petition number lower than 70,000 may be eligible to receive a similar wage subsidy for returning to lower-paying work, Alternative Trade Adjustment Assistance (ATAA), if ATAA is included in the Trade Act certification covering the worker.  ATAA benefit requirements are detailed on form TAA-22 (PDF, 102KB).