What is the base period for unemployment benefits in New York?
I'm trying to understand how NYS Department of Labor calculates my unemployment benefits and keep seeing references to something called the 'base period' but I have no idea what that means. Can someone explain what the base period is and how it affects my claim? I worked at two different jobs last year and want to make sure I'm getting the right amount.
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Fatima Al-Farsi
The base period is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before you filed your claim. So if you filed in January 2025, your base period would be January 2024 through September 2024. NYS Department of Labor uses the wages you earned during this period to calculate your weekly benefit amount and determine if you're eligible.
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Giovanni Moretti
•Oh that makes sense! So they don't count the most recent quarter when calculating benefits?
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Dylan Cooper
Right, there's also something called the alternate base period if you don't qualify using the standard one. The alternate base period uses the last four completed calendar quarters. Sometimes this helps people who recently started working or had higher wages in more recent quarters.
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Giovanni Moretti
•Would NYS Department of Labor automatically check the alternate base period if I don't qualify with the regular one?
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Dylan Cooper
•Yes, they'll automatically consider the alternate base period if you don't have enough wages in the standard base period to establish a claim.
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Sofia Perez
ugh this is so confusing why cant they just use all your wages from the past year???
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Dmitry Smirnov
I had trouble getting through to NYS Department of Labor to ask about my base period calculation. If you need to speak with someone about this stuff, I found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me get through to an actual agent. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Saved me hours of busy signals.
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Giovanni Moretti
•Thanks! I might need to call them if my benefit amount seems wrong.
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ElectricDreamer
Just to add - you need to have earned at least $2,700 in wages during your base period to qualify for unemployment benefits in NY. And you need wages in at least two quarters of the base period. These are the monetary eligibility requirements.
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Ava Johnson
One thing that tripped me up was that if you have multiple employers during the base period, NYS Department of Labor will count wages from ALL of them when calculating your benefits. You don't have to choose just one job - they look at your total wages from all covered employment.
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Giovanni Moretti
•That's good to know since I had two jobs last year. Do I need to report both employers when I file?
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Ava Johnson
•You should list all your employers from the past 18 months when you file your claim. NYS Department of Labor will verify the wages with all of them.
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AstroAlpha
•@Ava Johnson Perfect, thank you! That makes sense about listing all employers from the past 18 months. I m'feeling much more confident about filing my claim now that I understand how the base period works and that both my jobs will count toward my benefits.
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