NYS Department of Labor unemployment rate calculation - how to calculate actual rate of unemployment for my situation
I'm trying to understand how NYS Department of Labor calculates the actual unemployment rate and how it affects my claim. My weekly benefit amount seems inconsistent and I want to make sure they're calculating my rate correctly. I worked part-time hours last year and had periods of full unemployment. Does anyone know the formula they use? I've looked at my wage history on my.ny.gov but the calculations don't make sense to me. Is there a way to verify if my benefit rate is accurate?
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Rachel Tao
The NYS Department of Labor calculates your weekly benefit rate using your highest quarter earnings from your base period. They take your total wages from that quarter, divide by 26, then multiply by 50%. So if you earned $6,500 in your highest quarter, your weekly rate would be ($6,500 ÷ 26) × 0.5 = $125. The maximum weekly benefit in 2025 is $504. You can find your base period wages in the monetary determination letter they sent when you filed.
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Sayid Hassan
•Thanks! That helps explain it. I think my highest quarter was around $8,200 so that would put me at about $157 weekly which matches what I'm getting.
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Derek Olson
yeah the rate calculation is confusing but once you get it its pretty straightforward... they also look at whether you meet the minimum earnings requirement which i think is like $2600 in your base period or something
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Danielle Mays
•Actually it's a bit more complex - you need at least $2,600 in your base period AND your total base period wages must be at least 1.5 times your highest quarter earnings. So if your highest quarter was $2,000, you'd need at least $3,000 total in your base period.
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Roger Romero
I had issues getting through to NYS Department of Labor to verify my rate calculation when I thought there was an error. Kept getting busy signals and the online chat never worked. Finally used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me connected to an actual agent who walked through my calculation and found they had missed some wages from a previous employer. There's a good demo video at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. Saved me weeks of trying to get through on my own.
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Anna Kerber
•How much does that cost though? I'm already broke from being unemployed lol
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Roger Romero
•It's worth checking out their site for details, but for me it was way cheaper than missing weeks of benefits because of a calculation error. The peace of mind alone was worth it.
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Niko Ramsey
The whole system is so confusing! I've been trying to figure out if they're using the right wages for months. Why can't they just make it simple like other states?? And don't even get me started on how long adjudication takes when there ARE errors...
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Seraphina Delan
•I feel you on this. The NYS system definitely isn't the most user-friendly but at least once you understand the calculation it stays consistent.
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Alexis Robinson
One thing that helped me understand my calculation was requesting a copy of my wage transcript directly from the Department of Labor. You can do this online through your NY.gov account under "View and Print Forms" - look for the "Request for Wage Information" form. It shows exactly which employers and quarters they used in your base period calculation, so you can verify everything matches your records. I found they had missed some wages from a job where I worked under a slightly different name variation, and getting that corrected increased my weekly benefit amount.
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Nia Thompson
•That's really helpful advice! I didn't know you could request the wage transcript directly. I've been struggling to figure out if they're using all my earnings correctly. How long did it take for them to process the correction once you submitted the missing wage information? I'm worried about delays affecting my current benefits while they review everything.
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