NYS Department of Labor unemployment benefit amount - how much will I get weekly?
I just got laid off from my restaurant job where I was making about $650 a week before taxes. I'm trying to figure out how much my unemployment benefits will be so I can budget for rent and bills. Does anyone know how NYS Department of Labor calculates the weekly benefit amount? I tried looking on their website but it's confusing with all the base period stuff. I made decent money the past year but some weeks were slow during winter. Really stressed about making ends meet.
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Paige Cantoni
NYS Department of Labor uses your highest quarter earnings from your base period to calculate your weekly benefit rate. Generally it's about 50% of your average weekly wage, but there's a maximum cap around $504 per week for 2025. They look at your earnings from the first four of the last five completed quarters before you filed.
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Chad Winthrope
•So if I made $650 a week recently, I'd get around $325? That's actually not as bad as I thought it would be.
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Kylo Ren
yeah the restaurant industry can be tricky because of seasonal slowdowns affecting your base period calculation. i filed last spring and my benefit was lower than expected because my winter earnings were included
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Nina Fitzgerald
The exact formula is your highest quarter divided by 26. But you also need to meet the minimum earnings requirement - at least $2,800 in your highest quarter and total base period wages of at least 1.5 times your highest quarter. If you had consistent restaurant work you should be fine.
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Chad Winthrope
•I definitely made more than $2,800 in a quarter so that shouldn't be a problem. Thanks for breaking down the math!
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Jason Brewer
I had such a hard time getting through to NYS Department of Labor to check my benefit calculation when I filed. Kept getting busy signals for weeks. Finally used this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me get connected to an actual agent. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. Really saved me the headache of calling hundreds of times.
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Kiara Fisherman
•Never heard of that before but might be worth trying if I can't get through the normal way.
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Liam Cortez
The whole system is so confusing! Why can't they just tell you upfront what you'll get instead of making you calculate base periods and quarters?? I'm still waiting for my adjudication to finish after 3 weeks
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Paige Cantoni
•Adjudication delays are definitely frustrating but that's separate from the benefit calculation. Once your claim is approved you'll see your exact weekly benefit amount in your online account.
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