Colorado Unemployment Benefits Calculator
Colorado claimant entry
Colorado agency-award worksheet
For Colorado, enter the weekly award, maximum balance, and payable weeks issued by Colorado Department of Labor and Employment; this route asserts no state-law formula.
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment controls Colorado eligibility and the monetary record; this worksheet only mirrors Colorado values for review and never awards benefits.
Colorado claimant source: https://cdle.colorado.gov/unemployment — checked 2026-09-14 by this implementation.
Colorado: filing and evidence
Colorado is presented here in award-entry mode. Colorado Department of Labor and Employment reference material lists a Colorado ceiling of $844 weekly and 26 reference weeks, a pairing worth $21,944; neither figure proves monetary eligibility, payable weeks, or approval.
Colorado filing desk
Colorado unemployment benefits belongs with Colorado Department of Labor and Employment; this is the claimant-facing starting point.
https://cdle.colorado.gov/unemploymentColorado wage record boundary
Colorado’s wage record and claim date control the base period; the published ceiling is not a substitute for the MyUI+ determination.
Colorado claimant next action
Use MyUI+ to file and challenge missing wage records through the instructions on the monetary determination. For Colorado, keep employer names, pay-stub dates, gross wages, separation details, and work-search records together; Colorado Department of Labor and Employment needs the Colorado record when checking base-period quarters and the monetary determination.
Colorado agency source link (https://cdle.colorado.gov/unemployment) checked 2026-09-14; the federal comparison table is listed on the shared sources page.
Colorado works the number out twice and pays the better one
Colorado does not have a single weekly formula. It runs two calculations and awards the higher result, which is why the federal table publishes two different maximum weekly amounts for the state rather than one.
- Method one, the high-quarter route. 60% of one twenty-sixth of two consecutive high-quarter wages, capped at 50% of state average weekly earnings. This route tops out at $767.
- Method two, the whole-year route. 50% of one fifty-second of base-period earnings, capped at 55% of state average weekly earnings. This route tops out at $844. The federal footnote is explicit that the lower published figure is the high-quarter result and the higher one is the base-period result.
- Which one wins depends on the shape of your year. Concentrated earnings favour the high-quarter method; steady year-round earnings favour the base-period method with its more generous 55% cap.
- Qualifying is the greater of 40 times the weekly amount or $2,500. The claim total is then the lesser of a third of base-period wages or 26 times the weekly amount, giving 13 to 26 weeks.
- Part-time work: half the weekly amount is ignored.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Significant Provisions of State Unemployment Insurance Laws, effective January 2026. The report states it is not an official interpretation of state UI laws, so treat these provisions as a cross-check on the Department of Labor and Employment determination rather than a replacement for it.
Weekly maximums nearest Colorado
States whose maximum weekly benefit is closest to Colorado: