How does NYS Department of Labor determine unemployment pay amount for weekly benefits?
I just got approved for unemployment after working at a retail job for 2 years but I'm confused about how they calculated my weekly benefit amount. My payment says $285 per week but I have no idea how they came up with that number. I made about $38,000 last year working full time. Does anyone know how NYS Department of Labor actually determines what you get paid? I tried looking on their website but it's really confusing with all the base period stuff.
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Yara Nassar
NYS Department of Labor uses your highest quarter of earnings during your base period to calculate your weekly benefit rate. They take 1/26th of that highest quarter amount. So if your highest quarter was $10,000, your weekly benefit would be around $384. The base period is usually the first 4 of the last 5 completed quarters before you filed.
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Connor Murphy
•Thanks! That makes more sense. I think my highest quarter was probably around $7,400 so that math would put me right around what I'm getting.
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StarGazer101
yeah they look at your work history for like a year or something, it's really confusing but basically the more you made the more you get each week
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Keisha Jackson
There's also a maximum weekly benefit amount in New York - I think it's around $504 right now. So even if your calculation comes out higher, you won't get more than that maximum. The minimum is much lower, maybe around $104 per week. If you're having trouble reaching NYS Department of Labor to get clarification on your specific calculation, I had good luck using claimyr.com to get through to an actual agent. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works.
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Paolo Romano
•Wait so there's a cap on how much you can get? That seems unfair for people who made really good money...
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Keisha Jackson
•Yes, that's correct. The maximum is set by the state each year. It's meant to be a safety net, not full income replacement.
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Amina Diop
The whole system is ridiculous if you ask me. I worked for 15 years and when I got laid off they gave me peanuts compared to what I was making. And don't even get me started on how long it takes them to process anything at NYS Department of Labor!!
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Oliver Schmidt
•I feel you on that. The whole adjudication process took forever for me too.
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Natasha Volkov
I remember when I first filed I was so confused about this too. They also factor in any part-time work you might have had during that base period. If you worked multiple jobs, they combine all the wages from all employers during those quarters.
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Connor Murphy
This has been really helpful everyone. I'm going to log into my ny.gov account and see if I can find the actual breakdown of my base period earnings. At least now I understand the formula better!
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