How is weekly unemployment benefit calculated by NYS Department of Labor?
I'm trying to figure out exactly how the NYS Department of Labor calculates my weekly benefit amount. I made about $52,000 last year working at a marketing firm, but my weekly benefit is only $347. That seems low compared to what I was making. Does anyone know the actual formula they use? I looked on the my.ny.gov site but it's pretty confusing with all the base period stuff.
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Sofia Torres
The NYS Department of Labor uses your highest quarter earnings from your base period to calculate benefits. They take your highest quarter, divide by 26, then you get roughly half of that amount as your weekly benefit. There's also a maximum weekly benefit amount that changes each year - I think it's around $504 for 2025.
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Dylan Wright
•So they don't look at my total yearly earnings? Just one quarter? That explains why mine seems low - I had a slow start to the year.
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GalacticGuardian
wait what's a base period?? i thought they just looked at how much you made recently
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Sofia Torres
•The base period is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before you filed. So if you filed in January 2025, your base period would be January 2024 through September 2024.
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Dmitry Smirnov
I had trouble getting through to NYS Department of Labor to ask about my benefit calculation too. Spent hours on hold. Finally used this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that connects you directly to agents - worked way better than trying to call myself. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works.
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Ava Rodriguez
•How much does that cost though? Seems like something we should be able to do ourselves.
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Dmitry Smirnov
•It's worth it when you can't get through any other way. Saved me weeks of trying to reach someone about my benefit calculation questions.
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Miguel Diaz
The whole system is ridiculous. I made $65K last year and only get $387 a week. Meanwhile my rent alone is $1,800 a month. How are we supposed to survive on these amounts while looking for work?
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Zainab Ahmed
•I feel you. The benefits barely cover basic expenses, especially in NYC area.
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Sofia Torres
For anyone still confused about the calculation: NYS Department of Labor looks at your four highest quarters of earnings in your base period, adds them up to see if you qualify, then uses ONLY your single highest quarter to calculate the weekly amount. So if your highest quarter was $13,000, you'd get roughly $250 per week (13,000 ÷ 26 ÷ 2). The exact formula has some variations but that's the basic idea.
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