DEUnemployment insurance worksheet
Delaware Unemployment Calculator: Up to $450/Week, 26 Weeks
In Delaware, unemployment pays up to $450 a week for up to 26 weeks; your weekly amount is your two highest quarters added together and divided by 46.
Checked against primary sources · updated See the sources
How Delaware works out your amount
Delaware: sum the two highest quarters, divide by 46 and round down within $20–$450. Total wages must reach 36 weekly amounts. The account is half of total wages or 26 weekly amounts, rounded down to a whole dollar.
Weekly earnings reduction is not modeled here unless your state source gives a rule. Optional withholding is separate from the gross estimate.
The Delaware 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.
Delaware: 19 Del. C. 3313(t) now overrides the older trust-fund branches: the two highest quarters divided by 46, rounded down, within $20–$450. Section 3315(6) requires total wages of 36 weekly amounts, and 3313(o) limits the account to the smaller of 26 weekly amounts or half of total wages. The statute allows a single-quarter route. Source review dated October 1, 2026. https://delcode.delaware.gov/title19/c033/sc02/ (verified 2026-10-01)
The current formula uses your two highest quarters divided by 46
Delaware's weekly benefit is the sum of the two highest covered wage quarters divided by 46, rounded down to a whole dollar, within the $20–$450 range. The quarters do not have to be consecutive.
With $5,000 and $3,000 in the two highest quarters, dividing $8,000 by 46 gives $173.9130. The base weekly benefit is $173. Ten full weeks use $1,730; optional 10% withholding shows $155.70 per weekly payment separately from the gross draw.
The Delaware Code includes older trust-fund-dependent divisors and earlier caps. Current section 3313(t), effective for claims beginning April 2, 2023 and later, expressly overrides other provisions in that section and supplies the 46 divisor and $450 cap. The older $400 handbook maximum is not the current ceiling.
The $450 cap begins when the two-quarter sum reaches $20,700. At $20,699.99, the uncapped rate rounds down to $449. Enter the four selected covered wage quarters, with zero only when a quarter is known to have no wages.
Total base-period wages must equal 36 weekly amounts
Section 3314(6) requires total covered base-period wages of at least 36 times the computed weekly benefit. This is a total-wage test, separate from the two-quarter sum used to calculate the weekly rate.
A $173 rate requires $6,228 in total wages, so the $8,000 example passes. At the $20 minimum, total wages must reach $720. A covered record with one $720 quarter and three zeros reaches that boundary; one cent less fails.
The statute does not impose a generic two-paid-quarter rule on this monetary route. A single covered $1,000 quarter produces a $21 weekly rate and has enough total wages to reach its $756 requirement. Wages used to establish the actual claim still need agency confirmation; a worksheet wage test does not decide separation or weekly eligibility.
The normal base period is the four completed quarters that precede the most recent one. Special disability-related base-period provisions and wages from other jurisdictions require department review and are not selected automatically by this worksheet.
Half your total wages can exhaust the balance before 26 full weeks
Section 3313(o) caps the ordinary account at the lower of 26 weekly benefits or 50% of total covered base-period wages. Any fractional dollar rounds down. A 26-week ceiling does not mean every claim is funded for 26 full payments.
In the $5,000 plus $3,000 example, 26 × $173 is $4,498, but half of $8,000 limits the account to $4,000. Twenty-three full payments total $3,979. A modeled twenty-fourth week reaches the remaining balance.
If total wages become $8,001, half is $4,000.50; the statutory account rule still gives $4,000. At the $720 minimum-wage boundary, a $20 rate has a $360 balance, equivalent to 18 full weekly amounts. Four $20,000 quarters reach the $450 weekly cap and the $11,700 ordinary account ceiling.
Current scope and agency review
A missing wage quarter stays unknown, rather than being treated as zero.
This full-unemployment model excludes partial weekly earnings, pension deductions, child-support intercepts, repeat-claim work requirements and extended benefits. Optional withholding is separate from tax liability. Your monetary determination and ongoing eligibility decide the actual payments.
Delaware paid family and medical leave uses a different benefit law and maximum. Its $900 figure is not the $450 unemployment maximum used in this calculation.
Primary Delaware sources
- Delaware Code, Title 19, sections 3313 and 3314: current override, wage test, downward rounding and half-wage account limit.
- Current claimant questions: $20–$450 range, monetary determinations and claims.
- Agency claimant handbook: base-period and account guidance; its older $400 ceiling is superseded by current law.
Reviewed October 1, 2026. Confirm the actual record with the Delaware unemployment division.
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 Delaware 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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