NYS Department of Labor unemployment payment seems too low - can unemployment benefits be too low?

Your benefit amount is calculated based on your highest quarter of earnings in your base period, not your annual salary. If you were making $28k annually, that's about $538 per week, so half would be around $269. But NYS Department of Labor uses a specific formula - they look at your earnings in the highest quarter and divide by 26. If you had inconsistent hours or started the job recently, that could explain the lower amount.

yeah this happened to me too.. my benefits were way lower than expected because i had a gap in employment. the minimum weekly benefit in NY is like $104 so at least you're getting more than that? still sucks though

You should definitely check your wage history on the my.ny.gov portal. Go to your NYS Department of Labor account and look at the 'Monetary Determination' - it shows exactly which quarters they used and what wages were reported by your employers. Sometimes employers don't report wages correctly or there are missing quarters. If you see errors, you can request a wage investigation.

I had a similar issue last year and couldn't get through to NYS Department of Labor on the phone for weeks. The hold times were insane and I kept getting disconnected. A friend told me about this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helps you actually reach an agent. I was skeptical but tried it and got through to someone at NYS Department of Labor in like 20 minutes. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Turned out my employer had only reported wages for 2 quarters instead of 4, so my benefits got recalculated to the correct amount.

The NYS Department of Labor benefit calculation is so confusing! I thought I understood it but apparently not. My sister got like $400 a week and I only got $210 even though we made similar amounts. Turns out timing matters a lot for when you file.

Just to clarify the calculation for everyone - NYS uses your base period which is the first 4 of the last 5 completed calendar quarters before you file. So if you file in January 2025, your base period would be October 2023 through September 2024. They take your highest quarter earnings, divide by 26, and that's your weekly benefit rate (up to the maximum of $504 in 2025). If you don't have enough wages in the standard base period, you might qualify for the alternate base period which uses more recent quarters.

If your benefit amount seems wrong, I'd definitely recommend filing an appeal or requesting a wage investigation like others mentioned. I had a similar situation where my benefits were calculated using an old part-time job instead of my recent full-time position. The NYS Department of Labor recalculated after I provided additional documentation, and my weekly benefit went from $165 to $312. Don't just accept it if you think there's an error - you have rights to challenge the determination. The worst they can say is that the original calculation was correct, but you might discover missing wage reports or other issues that can be fixed.