How to calculate my unemployment benefits in Washington - need help with the formula
I just got laid off from my warehouse job and trying to figure out how much I'll get from Washington ESD. I made about $52,000 last year but my hours were all over the place - sometimes 30 hours, sometimes 50+ with overtime. I've been looking at the Washington ESD website but the benefit calculator is confusing me. Does anyone know how they actually calculate your weekly benefit amount? I need to know what to expect so I can budget accordingly.
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Jamal Anderson
Washington ESD uses your highest earning quarter from your base period (usually the first 4 of the last 5 completed quarters). They take that amount, divide by 26, then you get about 60-70% of that as your weekly benefit. There's also a minimum and maximum - I think max is around $999/week right now.
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Zoe Alexopoulos
•So they don't just look at my total yearly income? That's weird, why just one quarter?
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Jamal Anderson
•It's to account for seasonal work and varying income. They want to base it on your best earning period, not average it out over the whole year.
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Mei Wong
honestly the calculation is super confusing and changes depending on when you file. i tried calling washington esd like 50 times to get someone to explain it but could never get through
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QuantumQuasar
•I had the same problem with getting through to Washington ESD! Spent hours on hold just to get disconnected. Actually found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me get connected to an actual agent. They have a demo video at https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ showing how it works. Might be worth checking out if you need to talk to someone about your specific calculation.
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Liam McGuire
Your base period matters a lot. If you filed this month, they'd look at quarters from July 2023 through June 2024. If your highest quarter was $15,000, you'd divide that by 26 weeks = $576, then multiply by the benefit rate (around 3.85% right now I think). But there are other factors too like dependents.
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Zoe Alexopoulos
•Wait, 3.85%? That seems really low. So if my best quarter was $15k I'd only get like $58 a week?
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Jamal Anderson
•No no, you're mixing up the calculation. It's not 3.85% of your quarterly wages. The 3.85% is used differently in the formula. Your weekly benefit would be way higher than $58.
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Liam McGuire
•Sorry, I explained that wrong. The calculation is more complex. Your best bet is to use the calculator on the Washington ESD website or call them directly.
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Amara Eze
OMG this is so stressful! I filed two weeks ago and still haven't heard anything about my benefit amount. What if I calculated wrong on my application? What if they deny me because I messed up the income reporting? I keep checking my SecureAccess Washington account but it just says 'processing'.
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Giovanni Greco
•Don't panic! Processing usually takes 2-3 weeks. As long as you were honest about your income, you should be fine. They'll verify everything with your employer anyway.
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Fatima Al-Farsi
•been there! the waiting is the worst part but they're pretty good about sorting things out
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QuantumQuasar
Here's the basic formula as I understand it: Take your two highest quarters from your base period, add them together, divide by 2, then divide by 26. That gives you your Average Quarterly Wage (AQW). Your weekly benefit is a percentage of that AQW. The exact percentage varies but it's designed to replace about 50% of your average weekly wage.
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Zoe Alexopoulos
•This makes more sense than what I was reading online. So if my two best quarters were $14k and $16k, that's $30k total, divided by 2 = $15k AQW, divided by 26 = about $577 average weekly wage, so maybe $288 weekly benefit?
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QuantumQuasar
•That sounds about right for a rough estimate! The actual calculation has some other factors but you're in the right ballpark.
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Dylan Wright
THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS DESIGNED TO CONFUSE YOU! I've been trying to figure this out for my sister and it's like they don't want you to know how much you'll get. Why can't they just have a simple calculator that actually works??
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Jamal Anderson
•The calculator on their website does work, it's just not very user-friendly. You have to know exactly which quarters to use and have all your wage information handy.
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Sofia Torres
i think there's also something about if you have kids you get extra money? not sure how much though
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Jamal Anderson
•Yes, there's a dependency allowance if you have qualifying dependents. I believe it's an additional amount per dependent, but I'm not sure of the current rate.
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GalacticGuardian
I work in HR and deal with unemployment claims regularly. The calculation Washington ESD uses is: Weekly Benefit Amount = (High Quarter wages ÷ 26) × benefit percentage rate. The benefit percentage rate is based on your total base period wages and ranges from about 1.2% to 4.4%. There's also a minimum weekly benefit (currently $295) and maximum (currently $999).
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Zoe Alexopoulos
•Finally someone who knows what they're talking about! So the percentage rate changes based on how much you made overall?
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GalacticGuardian
•Exactly. Lower total wages get a higher percentage rate, higher total wages get a lower percentage rate. It's progressive like tax brackets.
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Dmitry Smirnov
•This is super helpful! I wish Washington ESD explained it this clearly on their website.
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Ava Rodriguez
When I was figuring mine out last year, I actually had to call Washington ESD to get the exact numbers because my situation was complicated (had two jobs). The agent walked me through it step by step. Took forever to get through though - I probably called 100 times over two weeks.
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Miguel Diaz
•That's exactly why I started using Claimyr to get through to Washington ESD agents. Saved me so much time and frustration. Sometimes you really need to talk to a person to understand your specific situation.
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Zainab Ahmed
One thing to remember is that your benefit amount might be different than what you calculate if you have any issues with your claim. Like if they need to verify employment or if there are any red flags, they might reduce your benefits or put you in adjudication.
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Zoe Alexopoulos
•What kind of red flags? I'm worried now that something might be wrong with my claim.
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Zainab Ahmed
•Usually just things like discrepancies between what you reported and what your employer reported, or if you quit vs. were laid off. Nothing to worry about if you were honest on your application.
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Connor Gallagher
does anyone know if overtime counts differently? i worked a ton of overtime in my best quarter
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GalacticGuardian
•Overtime counts the same as regular wages for benefit calculation purposes. It's all just total wages earned in each quarter.
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AstroAlpha
I calculated mine wrong the first time because I was looking at gross vs net pay. Make sure you're using your gross wages (before taxes) from your pay stubs, not your take-home pay.
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Zoe Alexopoulos
•Good point! I was wondering about that. So all the numbers should be pre-tax amounts?
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AstroAlpha
•Yes, definitely gross wages. Your W-2 from last year would have the right numbers if you still have it.
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Yara Khoury
The Washington ESD benefit calculator worked fine for me but you have to be really careful about which quarters you're using. I kept getting confused about the base period dates.
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Keisha Taylor
•Yeah the base period thing trips everyone up. It's not just the last four quarters, it's the first four of the last five completed quarters. Makes no sense why they do it that way.
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Paolo Longo
This whole thread has been super helpful! I was totally lost on how the calculation worked. Sounds like for most people it ends up being roughly half your average weekly pay, give or take.
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GalacticGuardian
•That's a good rule of thumb for estimation purposes. The actual formula is more complex but 50% of average weekly wages is usually pretty close.
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Zoe Alexopoulos
•Same here, this thread answered way more questions than the Washington ESD website did. Thanks everyone!
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Amina Bah
Just remember you'll also need to file your weekly claims and do job search activities to keep getting benefits. The calculation is just the first step.
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Zoe Alexopoulos
•Yeah I'm trying to figure all that out too. One thing at a time though!
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Oliver Becker
if you're still having trouble getting through to talk to someone at washington esd about your specific calculation, i had good luck with claimyr too. they got me connected pretty quickly when i was stuck in adjudication and needed to talk to an agent
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CosmicCowboy
•How does that work exactly? Do they just call for you?
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Mateo Martinez
I just went through this same process a few months ago and it was so confusing at first! Based on what everyone's saying here, it sounds like you're on the right track. With your $52k income, you'll want to look at your highest earning quarter from your base period. Since you mentioned variable hours, that overtime probably helped boost one of your quarters significantly. From my experience, the actual amount usually ends up being pretty close to what the online calculator shows once you get the quarters right. The hardest part is just figuring out which quarters count as your base period - but once you have that, the rest falls into place. Good luck with your claim!
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