ALUnemployment insurance worksheet
Alabama Unemployment Calculator: Up to $275/Week
In Alabama, unemployment pays up to $275 a week; weeks are set by your determination. Your weekly amount is the average of your two highest quarters divided by 26.
Checked against primary sources · updated See the sources
How Alabama works out your amount
Alabama: average the two highest quarters, divide by 26 and round to the nearest dollar with exact 50-cent weekly ties down. Check the 1.5-times wage test. Claims before October 16, 2026 use the earlier 14-week model; for a claim from that date, enter the weeks on your determination. Exact half-dollar account ties require agency review.
Weekly earnings reduction is not modeled here unless your state source gives a rule. Optional withholding is separate from the gross estimate.
The Alabama Department of Labor decides eligibility, base-period wages, payable weeks, reductions, withholding and the final award. Use the official record below to verify this scenario.
Alabama: Code of Alabama 25-4-72, 25-4-74 and 25-4-77 as currently published by the Legislature: the two highest quarters divided by 52, with an exact 50-cent result rounding down; a raw $44.50 does not qualify. The weekly cap is $275 and total wages must reach 1.5 times the high quarter. The balance is the smaller of the authorized duration times the weekly amount or one-fourth of total wages, rounded to the nearest dollar; an exact 50-cent account tie stays unresolved. Claims dated October 16, 2026 or later need the duration on the determination; the earlier reviewed model uses 14 weeks. The October 17 source check did not establish a successor third-quarter rate determination. https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/code-of-alabama (verified 2026-10-17)
Average the two highest quarters, then divide by 26
Alabama uses the average of your two highest covered wage quarters divided by 26. The equivalent calculation is the sum of those quarters divided by 52. It differs from a formula based only on your high quarter. The current weekly range is $45–$275 for a qualifying wage record.
Section 25-4-72 rounds fractional weekly amounts to the nearest dollar, with a specific exception: exact 50-cent ties round down. A $3,000 quarter and $2,226 quarter produce exactly $100.50, so the weekly rate is $100. Increasing the second quarter to $2,226.01 makes the amount slightly above the midpoint, producing $101.
At the upper boundary, $8,000 and $6,274 produce exactly $274.50, which gives $274. One additional cent in those combined wages moves the result to the $275 maximum. The calculator applies these rules before modeling the account.
A raw amount of $44.50 does not qualify
Alabama requires a pre-rounding weekly amount greater than $44.50. Combined top-two-quarter wages of exactly $2,314 do not satisfy that condition. A positive wage entry alone is not a qualifying award.
Section 25-4-77 also requires total covered base-period wages of at least 1.5 times the highest quarter. Both conditions are checked. For example, $5,000 in the high quarter and $2,500 in another quarter pass the wage-ratio test; reducing that second quarter by one cent fails it.
Use the wages and base-period quarters on your monetary record. The handbook defines the regular base period as the four completed calendar quarters that precede the most recent one. All four wages are needed for the total-wage test and account ceiling, even though only two determine the weekly formula. Blank quarters remain unresolved; zero means no covered wages in that quarter.
A 14-week ceiling applies to the earlier reviewed claim window
Section 25-4-74 uses the latest published third-quarter average of seasonally adjusted Alabama unemployment rates. At or below 6.5%, the ordinary ceiling is 14 weekly amounts. Higher rates can increase it, up to 20 weekly amounts; today's monthly rate is not substituted for that statutory average.
The reviewed agency publications report July–September 2025 rates of 3.0%, 2.9% and 2.8%, averaging 2.9%. The current 2026 publication calendar schedules September 2026 data for October 16, so that new third-quarter series is not yet complete as of this October 1 review. That earlier quarter supported the 14-week model for the claim dates reviewed through October 15, 2026. The rate series available at the October 17 recheck still stops at August 2026; it does not establish a complete July–September 2026 quarter or a new duration determination.
It does not assume the same duration for a later unreviewed period. An additional five weeks can be available after exhaustion for approved training under subsection (f); those conditional training benefits are excluded from the ordinary model.
The balance can exhaust before all authorized payments
The ordinary maximum balance is the lesser of the duration ceiling times the weekly amount and one-quarter of total covered base-period wages, rounded to the nearest dollar under section 25-4-74.
For an October 15, 2026 claim with quarters of $5,000, $4,000, zero and zero, the weekly rate is $173. Fourteen payments would total $2,422, but the wage ceiling is $2,250. Ten full weeks model $1,730; a fourteenth modeled week reaches the $2,250 balance rather than another full payment.
If the second quarter is $4,003, the quarter-wage ceiling is $2,250.75 and rounds to $2,251. The statute does not specify which direction resolves an exact half-dollar account tie in the reviewed text. That narrow case stays unresolved here and should use the agency determination. The separate weekly rule explicitly resolves its 50-cent ties downward.
This worksheet excludes severance and back-pay allocation, the eight-times prior-claim work requirement, part-time earnings, the waiting week, pension deductions, training benefits and extensions. The wage status is a monetary screen; the agency still decides separation, work search and weekly eligibility. Optional withholding changes the cash illustration, not tax liability.
Primary sources for the weekly amount and duration
- Current Code of Alabama: sections 25-4-72, 25-4-74 and 25-4-77, retrieved through the legislature's public code service.
- Current Alabama claimant handbook: base period, wage ratio, $45–$275 range and training benefits.
- September 2025 agency rate release and agency archive including the August release: published third-quarter rates.
- Current 2026 rate publication calendar: September data due October 16.
The statutory formula and duration rule were reread October 17, 2026. For a claim dated October 16 or later, copy the authorized weeks from your determination; the older 14-week model is not an automatic current award.
Apply or review your determination through the Alabama claimant portal. This estimate does not approve a claim or guarantee a payment.
Worked in a nearby state too?
Each state pays from the wages reported to it, so a claim follows where the covered work was done. If some of your base-period wages were earned in one of these states, open its worksheet, or compare every state on the unemployment benefits calculator.
Supported claim periods and annual handoff
Duration changes with a published unemployment-rate determination. October 16, 2026 is a source-review checkpoint, not an invented legal expiration. For claims dated on or after that checkpoint, enter the agency-authorized weeks. The weekly formula can remain known while a missing duration leaves the account and modeled total unresolved.
The Alabama wage-estimate calendar supports 2026-01-01 to 2026-12-31. Source dates describe when evidence was checked; they do not create a legal expiration. A blank claim date uses the current local date. After a finite schedule ends, the form shows an explicit official-award worksheet. Enter the weekly award, maximum account and authorized weeks from the determination. An unverified successor rate is never copied from the previous annual table.
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