Can you collect unemployment from two different jobs at the same time with NYS Department of Labor?
I'm really confused about how this works. I had two part-time jobs this year - one at a retail store and another doing weekend catering work. Both jobs ended around the same time in December (retail was seasonal, catering company went out of business). When I filed my unemployment claim with NYS Department of Labor, I listed both employers but I'm not sure if I can actually get benefits based on wages from both jobs or if there's some kind of limit? The my.ny.gov system let me enter both but didn't really explain how it calculates the benefit amount. Has anyone been in this situation before?
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Dylan Mitchell
Yes, NYS Department of Labor absolutely considers wages from multiple employers when calculating your weekly benefit amount. They look at your total earnings during your base period (usually the first 4 of the last 5 completed quarters) regardless of how many different jobs you had. The system will combine all your covered wages to determine both your eligibility and benefit amount. Your weekly benefit rate is typically about half of your average weekly wage, up to the maximum allowed.
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Fatima Al-Hashemi
•That's really helpful! Do you know if there's anything special I need to do during my weekly claims since I had multiple employers? I'm worried about messing something up.
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Sofia Martinez
same thing happened to me last year when my restaurant job and my retail job both ended. the unemployment office combined everything automatically when they processed my claim
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Dmitry Volkov
Just make sure when you file your weekly claims that you report ANY work from either type of job if you pick up shifts. I made the mistake of only thinking about my main job and got in trouble for not reporting some catering work I did while collecting. NYS Department of Labor wants to know about all work, even if it's just a few hours.
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Fatima Al-Hashemi
•Good point about reporting everything. I haven't done any work yet but I'll definitely keep that in mind if I get offered any shifts.
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Ava Thompson
The unemployment system is so confusing when you've had multiple jobs! I was in a similar spot and had such a hard time getting through to anyone at NYS Department of Labor to ask questions. Ended up using this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that actually got me connected to a real person who could explain how my benefits were calculated. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Made the whole process way less stressful than trying to call the regular number.
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CyberSiren
•Never heard of that service before but honestly anything is better than sitting on hold for hours just to get disconnected. The NYS Department of Labor phone system is terrible.
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Miguel Alvarez
I'm dealing with something similar but I think one of my jobs might not have been reporting my wages correctly to NYS Department of Labor. How do you know if all your wages are showing up in the system? My benefit amount seems lower than I expected based on what I was making combined from both jobs.
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Dylan Mitchell
•You can request a wage transcript from NYS Department of Labor to see exactly what wages they have on file for you. If something's missing, you'll need to provide pay stubs or other documentation to get it corrected. This can definitely affect your benefit calculation.
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Javier Cruz
Having multiple jobs definitely complicates things but you're on the right track! One thing to keep in mind is that NYS Department of Labor will also look at whether you're "totally unemployed" or "partially unemployed" - since you lost both jobs completely, you should qualify for full benefits based on your combined wages. Just make sure to keep good records of your employment dates and final pay from both employers in case they need verification. The system can sometimes take a while to process claims with multiple employers, so don't panic if it takes longer than expected to get your first payment.
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