CAUnemployment insurance worksheet
California Unemployment Calculator: Up to $450/Week
In California, unemployment pays up to $450 a week for up to 26 weeks; your weekly amount is your highest quarter divided by 26 (lower earners use a table).
Checked against primary sources · updated See the sources
How California works out your amount
California: use the exact EDD low-wage table, then high-quarter wages divided by 26 rounded upward, capped at $450. Either the $1,300 high-quarter route or the $900 plus 1.25-times-total route can qualify. The balance is half of total wages or 26 weekly amounts, rounded upward.
Weekly earnings reduction is not modeled here unless your state source gives a rule. Optional withholding is separate from the gross estimate.
The California Employment Development Department decides eligibility, base-period wages, payable weeks, reductions, withholding and the final award. Use the official record below to verify this scenario.
California: UIC 1280 and 1281 with EDD's current wage table: 31 low-wage bands pay $40–$70; above them the weekly amount is high-quarter wages divided by 26, rounded up, capped at $450. Qualification is $1,300 in the high quarter, or $900 in the high quarter with total wages of 1.25 times it; a single $1,300 quarter can qualify. The account is the smaller of 26 weekly amounts or half of base-period wages, rounded up. A boundary error in the agency's online calculator was not copied. Source review dated October 1, 2026. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=UIC§ionNum=1281. (verified 2026-10-01)
The EDD table matters for a low high-quarter wage
California's current weekly base benefit is $40–$450, but applying a generic highest-quarter divisor throughout that range gives wrong answers. Unemployment Insurance Code section 1280 has 31 specific low-wage bands through a $1,832.99 highest quarter. Above that boundary, the rule is 50% of high-quarter wages divided by 13, equivalent to dividing by 26, with a fractional weekly benefit rounded upward.
The $900–$948.99 band pays $40. A $949 high quarter pays $41. At $1,300, the table pays $53, although simply dividing by 26 would give $50. The $1,807–$1,832.99 band pays $70; a $1,833 high quarter uses the formula and pays $71.
At $5,000, the formula gives $192.3077 and rounds upward to $193. At $11,674 exactly it gives $449; one cent more reaches the $450 ceiling. This worksheet uses the statutory table and EDD's published benefit table. The agency's online calculator has an inconsistent $1,846 boundary, so its zero at that boundary is not used here.
Two monetary routes: $1,300, or $900 with a wage ratio
Section 1281 allows either of two ways to establish a monetary claim. A highest quarter of at least $1,300 meets the first route. Otherwise, a highest quarter of at least $900 needs total covered base-period wages of at least 1.25 times that quarter. These are alternative routes.
A $900 quarter with $225 in another quarter reaches the $1,125 total requirement and produces a $40 weekly rate. Reducing the outside wages to $224.99 fails. A single $900 quarter fails this route, but a single covered $1,300 quarter can meet the first monetary route and produce $53. An across-the-board two-quarter condition would incorrectly reject it.
Enter covered wages for all four selected base-period quarters. The regular period is the four completed quarters that precede the most recent one. EDD considers the alternate latest-four-quarter period when the regular period does not establish a valid claim. This worksheet evaluates the wage record you select; it does not combine two periods or automatically replace the EDD record.
The claim balance is capped by half your total wages
The regular maximum benefit amount is the lower of 26 times the weekly rate or half of total base-period wages. Section 1281(c) rounds a fractional account ceiling up to the next whole dollar. That is a separate rounding step from the weekly rate.
With $5,000 and $3,000 quarters and two zeros, the weekly rate is $193. Twenty-six weekly benefits would be $5,018, but half the $8,000 wage total limits the account to $4,000. Ten full weeks use $1,930. Twenty weeks use $3,860; a modeled twenty-first week reaches the account limit rather than funding another full $193.
A single $1,300 quarter gives a $53 weekly rate and a $650 balance. It does not fund 26 full payments. Four $20,000 quarters reach the $450 weekly cap and the $11,700 maximum ordinary account. The wage test, weekly rate and funded balance answer different questions.
If total wages are $8,001, half is $4,000.50 and the statutory account rounding gives $4,001. Optional 10% withholding from the $193 weekly example shows $173.70; it does not reduce the gross account draw shown here.
How to use the result with an EDD determination
Leaving a quarter blank does not invent a zero, and a failed monetary test displays zero rather than a minimum award.
This is a full-unemployment monetary worksheet. It excludes the waiting week, weekly earnings deductions, training extensions, pensions, repeat-claim requirements, overpayments and other offsets. Eligibility also depends on separation, availability and ongoing certification. A wage record that passes either monetary route does not decide those conditions.
Compare each employer and covered quarter with the EDD notice before using the amount in a budget. The requested-week field caps the modeled gross draw at the account balance; it does not promise that every modeled week will be payable.
Primary California sources
- UIC 1280: low-wage table, formula, upward rounding and $450 cap.
- UIC 1281: alternative wage tests, half-wage account limit and account rounding.
- EDD's full benefit table: the exact wage-band endpoints.
- EDD's computation fact sheet and official calculator: qualification and base-period guidance.
Reviewed October 1, 2026. Use EDD unemployment guidance to file and confirm the actual claim.
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
The California wage-estimate calendar supports 2026-01-01 to the current statutory schedule, subject to amendment. 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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