What does earnings allowance mean on NYS Department of Labor unemployment benefits?
I'm really confused about something on my unemployment claim. I've been getting partial benefits while working part-time at a restaurant, and I keep seeing 'earnings allowance' mentioned in my payment history on my.ny.gov but nobody ever explained what this actually means. Does this affect how much I get paid each week? I've been reporting my wages correctly on my weekly claims but I'm worried I'm missing something important about how they calculate my benefits when I work part-time.
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Aileen Rodriguez
The earnings allowance is basically how much you can earn from part-time work before your unemployment benefits start getting reduced. In New York, you can earn up to 25% of your weekly benefit rate without any reduction to your UI payment. So if your weekly benefit rate is $400, you could earn up to $100 and still get your full $400 unemployment check. Anything you earn above that $100 gets deducted from your benefits dollar-for-dollar.
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Bruno Simmons
•Oh that makes so much more sense! So the earnings allowance is actually protecting some of my part-time income from reducing my benefits? I was worried it meant I was earning too much.
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Zane Gray
wait i thought you could only work like 3 days a week or something on unemployment?? this is confusing me even more now
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Maggie Martinez
•No, there's no specific day limit. It's all about the dollar amount you earn versus your weekly benefit rate. You could work 7 days a week if you wanted, as long as your total earnings don't exceed your benefit rate plus the allowance. The key is reporting everything accurately on your weekly claim.
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Alejandro Castro
I've been dealing with this for months and still get confused by the math! Last week I earned $150 at my part-time job and my weekly benefit rate is $350. So with the 25% earnings allowance that's $87.50 I can earn without reduction, which means $62.50 gets deducted from my $350 benefits, leaving me with $287.50 in unemployment plus my $150 wages. It's actually not terrible once you understand the calculation.
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Bruno Simmons
•Thanks for breaking down a real example! That really helps me see how it works in practice.
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Monique Byrd
Just be super careful about reporting everything correctly. I had a friend who forgot to report some cash tips and NYS Department of Labor caught it later and hit him with an overpayment notice. The earnings allowance only protects you if you're honest about what you're actually earning. If you're having trouble getting through to NYS Department of Labor to verify your calculations, I used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that actually gets you connected to a real agent. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Made it way easier than spending hours on hold.
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Jackie Martinez
•interesting, never heard of that service before. might try it since i can never get through their phone lines
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Lia Quinn
The whole system is so unnecessarily complicated imo. Why can't they just give you a simple chart that shows exactly what you'll get based on what you earn? Instead we have to do math every week and hope we're understanding their 'allowance' calculations correctly.
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Aileen Rodriguez
•I agree it could be clearer, but once you get used to the 25% rule it becomes pretty straightforward. The important thing is that the earnings allowance is designed to encourage people to work part-time while on unemployment rather than penalizing every dollar earned.
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Luca Esposito
This is really helpful info everyone! I'm in a similar situation working part-time while on unemployment. One thing I'd add is that the earnings allowance calculation happens automatically when you file your weekly certification - you don't have to do the math yourself. When you report your gross earnings for the week, the system calculates the 25% allowance and any deductions for you. You can see the breakdown in your payment history on the NY.gov portal. Just make sure you're reporting gross earnings (before taxes) not your take-home pay, since that's what they base the calculation on.
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