How do I calculate my Washington ESD unemployment benefit amount?

So if my highest quarter was like $15,000, I'd get around $575 per week? That seems pretty good actually.

Exactly! And remember that's before taxes if you choose to have them withheld. You can elect to have 10% federal tax taken out when you file your weekly claims.

Have you tried using Claimyr? It's a service that helps you get through to Washington ESD agents. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ showing how it works. Saved me hours of calling.

Never heard of that but I'll check it out. Getting hung up on after waiting 45 minutes is getting old fast.

Is that legit? Sounds too good to be true honestly.

Wait what? That sounds complicated. How do I know if I meet that?

Washington ESD will calculate this automatically when you file. Most people who work regularly meet these requirements, but it can be an issue if you had very irregular work or just started working recently.

It's because employers have time to report wages to Washington ESD, so they use completed quarters where all the wage data is available. If you file early in a quarter, they can't use wages from that current quarter yet.

I think there's also an alternate base period if your regular base period doesn't qualify you, but I'm not sure how that works.

How long did that take to resolve? I'm worried I might have the same issue.

About 2 weeks once I got through to the right person. The hardest part was actually reaching someone who could access my wage records and make corrections.

Good idea! I'll log in and check that first.

Yeah definitely do this. I found out one of my employers reported my wages under the wrong SSN and had to get it corrected.

I got 2 weeks severance. Does that mean I can't file right away?

You can file right away, but your benefits might be delayed for the weeks the severance covers. Washington ESD will tell you when you file how it affects your claim.

Severance is reported as wages for the weeks it's intended to cover, so if you got 2 weeks severance, you'd report that income for those 2 weeks when filing your weekly claims.

That's reassuring. I was worried there would be some hidden catch that would reduce my benefits.

the only catch is actually getting through to them when you have questions lol

Good point. I'll file this week then.

Yes! And remember you have to file weekly claims even while your initial claim is being processed.

I tried that calculator and it kept giving me error messages. I'll just estimate it myself.

Their whole website is pretty clunky tbh. The mobile version is even worse.

Did that increase or decrease your benefits?

It increased them because the additional wages made my high quarter higher. But I had to call Washington ESD to understand why my benefit amount changed mid-claim.

That's when services like Claimyr really help - when you need to reach Washington ESD to understand changes to your claim or get clarification about calculations.

I only worked in Washington so that shouldn't be an issue for me.

Interstate claims are such a pain. I had wages from Oregon and it took months to get everything sorted out.

Good reminder. I'll probably have them withhold taxes to avoid a surprise bill later.

You can change your tax withholding election at any time by updating your claim information online.

That's what I'm hoping for - just a consistent amount I can budget around.

Just remember you have to keep filing weekly claims and doing job searches to keep getting paid. Don't slack on that part.

How would I know if it's wrong though? I'm not great with all these wage calculations.

Compare their calculation to what you think your highest quarter wages were. If there's a big difference, that's worth investigating.

And if you need to discuss discrepancies with Washington ESD, that's another situation where Claimyr can help you actually reach an agent instead of waiting on hold for hours.