How is unemployment benefit calculated by NYS Department of Labor - confused about my weekly amount

NYS Department of Labor uses your base period earnings to calculate benefits. They take your highest earning quarter during the base period and divide by 26 to get your weekly benefit rate. The base period is usually the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before you filed. So if you filed in January 2025, they'd look at January-December 2024. Both your main job and part-time work count toward the calculation as long as you paid into UI on those earnings.

yeah they use highest quarter but there's also a maximum weekly benefit amount in NY. I think it's like $504 right now? so even if your calculation comes out higher you won't get more than the max. also you need to have worked in at least two quarters during the base period to qualify

I had the same confusion when I filed! The determination letter they send explains it but it's written in government speak. What helped me was looking at my wage transcript on the my.ny.gov portal - you can see exactly which quarters they used and the amounts. Sometimes employers don't report wages correctly so it's worth checking.

If you're having trouble getting through to NYS Department of Labor to ask questions about your benefit calculation, I had success using a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me reach an actual agent. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. I was stuck trying to understand why my benefit amount seemed low and couldn't get through on the phone for weeks. The agent was able to explain exactly which quarters they used and why one of my jobs wasn't included in the calculation.

The NYS Department of Labor system is so confusing with these calculations! I swear they make it complicated on purpose. I've been on unemployment twice and both times the amount seemed random until someone explained the highest quarter thing to me. At least your rate sounds decent - mine was only $287 because I had been working part-time before I got laid off.

I went through this same confusion last year! The calculation is actually pretty straightforward once you understand it. They look at your "base period" which is typically the first 4 of the last 5 completed calendar quarters before you filed. Then they take your highest earning quarter from that period and divide by 26. So if your highest quarter was around $9,490, that would get you to about $365/week ($9,490 ÷ 26 = $365). Both your main job and part-time work count as long as unemployment taxes were withheld. The key thing is making sure all your employers reported your wages correctly - sometimes there are delays or errors that can affect your calculation.

Just wanted to add that you can also appeal your benefit calculation if you think there's an error. I had to do this when they missed including wages from a job where I worked the last few weeks of a quarter. The appeal process took about 6 weeks but they corrected my weekly amount from $298 to $421. Make sure to gather all your pay stubs and W-2s before filing an appeal though - they'll want documentation of all your earnings during the base period. The deadline to appeal is usually 30 days from when you receive your monetary determination letter.

One thing that caught me off guard was that the base period might not be what you expect - it's not the most recent four quarters, but the first four of the last five completed quarters. So there's actually a lag period where your most recent earnings might not count yet. When I filed in March, they were looking at my earnings from the previous January through December, not including January-February of the current year. This is called the "standard base period." If your earnings were higher in more recent quarters, you might be able to request they use the "alternate base period" which shifts everything forward by one quarter. Worth asking about if you think your recent earnings would give you a higher benefit rate!