How much will I receive for unemployment - NYS Department of Labor benefit calculation?
Just got laid off from my retail job last week and I'm trying to figure out how much money I'll actually get from unemployment. I made about $38,000 last year but my hours were all over the place - some weeks 40 hours, some weeks like 15. Does NYS Department of Labor look at my highest earning quarter or do they average everything out? I've never filed for UI before and I'm honestly confused by all the calculations on their website. My rent is $1,200 a month so I really need to know what to expect so I can budget properly.
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Gabriel Freeman
NYS Department of Labor calculates your weekly benefit rate using your highest earning quarter from your base period (usually the first 4 of the last 5 completed quarters). They take that quarter's wages and divide by 26 to get your weekly amount. The maximum weekly benefit for 2025 is $504, and you need to have earned at least $2,600 in your base period to qualify. Your benefit duration depends on how much you earned in your entire base period - you can get anywhere from 26 to 30 weeks typically.
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Debra Bai
•So if my best quarter was like $12,000, I'd get around $460 per week? That would actually help a lot with my bills.
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Laura Lopez
yeah the calculations are confusing but basically they use your best quarter. i was making similar money to you and got like $420 a week. not great but better than nothing!! just make sure you file right away because there's a waiting week
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Victoria Brown
•Actually there's no waiting week anymore in NY - that was eliminated a few years ago. You can get paid for your first week of unemployment as long as you're eligible.
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Samuel Robinson
The whole system is designed to give you as little as possible. I worked for 15 years and when I got my benefit amount it was insulting. NYS Department of Labor acts like they're doing you a favor when it's YOUR money that you paid into the system through payroll taxes.
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Camila Castillo
•I mean unemployment isn't supposed to replace your full salary, it's just temporary assistance while you look for work. The benefit formula has been the same for years.
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Victoria Brown
If you're having trouble reaching NYS Department of Labor to get specifics about your claim, I used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that actually got me through to a real person. They have this video demo (https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI) that shows how it works. Saved me hours of trying to call and getting busy signals. Sometimes you just need to talk to someone who can look up your exact wage history and give you the real numbers.
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Debra Bai
•That sounds helpful! I've been dreading trying to call them because I heard the wait times are crazy long.
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Brianna Muhammad
Wait so is the benefit amount based on gross or net pay? And what if I had multiple jobs - do they count all of them or just the main one?
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Gabriel Freeman
•It's based on gross wages and they count ALL employers that reported wages to NYS Department of Labor. So if you had multiple jobs, that actually helps increase your benefit amount since it's all combined in your wage calculation.
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