How much do I get on unemployment - NYS Department of Labor weekly benefit amount confusion
I just filed my first unemployment claim with NYS Department of Labor and I'm really confused about how much money I'm supposed to get each week. The website shows my weekly benefit rate but I don't understand how they calculated it. My last job paid $18 per hour and I worked about 35 hours a week. Does anyone know the formula they use? I'm trying to figure out if I can cover my rent and bills or if I need to find something part-time while I'm looking for work.
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Cassandra Moon
NYS Department of Labor calculates your weekly benefit rate based on your highest earning quarter in your base period, which is usually the first 4 of the last 5 completed quarters before you filed. They take your highest quarter earnings and divide by 26 to get your weekly rate. The maximum weekly benefit for 2025 is $504. So if you made around $13,000 in your highest quarter, you'd get the max.
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Eli Wang
•Thanks! That helps explain it. I think my highest quarter was around $8,500 so that would be about $327 per week if I'm doing the math right?
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Zane Hernandez
yeah the formula is confusing but its basically your highest quarter divided by 26 weeks. i was making $22/hour and got like $420 something per week. you can see the exact amount on your my.ny.gov account once your claim gets approved
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Genevieve Cavalier
Don't forget you can work part-time while collecting unemployment but you have to report any earnings on your weekly claim. NYS Department of Labor has specific rules about how much you can earn before it affects your benefits. I think you can earn up to about $143 per week without any reduction, but check the current amounts on their website.
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Eli Wang
•Good to know! I was worried about taking any part-time work because I thought it would mess up my claim.
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Ethan Scott
I had such a hard time getting through to NYS Department of Labor to ask about my benefit amount when I first filed. Kept getting busy signals and hung up on. Finally used this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that connects you directly to an agent - they have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. Was able to get my questions answered about my weekly rate calculation in like 10 minutes instead of spending hours calling.
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Lola Perez
•Never heard of that but might try it if I can't get through. The phone system is so frustrating!
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Nathaniel Stewart
THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS DESIGNED TO CONFUSE PEOPLE!! They make the benefit calculation so complicated on purpose. I've been dealing with unemployment for years and they ALWAYS find ways to pay you less than you expect. Don't trust their estimates until you see actual payments in your account.
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Riya Sharma
Also remember your benefits are taxable income so you might want to have taxes withheld from your weekly payments. You can set that up in your my.ny.gov account. I learned that the hard way when I owed money at tax time.
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Eli Wang
•Oh wow I didn't think about taxes. Thanks for the heads up!
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