MEUnemployment insurance worksheet
Maine Unemployment Calculator: Max $649/Week + Dependents
In Maine, unemployment pays up to $649 a week before dependent allowances for up to 26 weeks; your weekly amount is the average of your two highest quarters divided by 22.
Checked against primary sources · updated See the sources
How Maine works out your amount
Maine base benefit estimate for June 2026–May 2027. Confirm the indexed state average weekly wage to resolve monetary qualification. Dependent supplements are shown separately from the base balance.
Weekly earnings reduction is not modeled here unless your state source gives a rule. Optional withholding is separate from the gross estimate.
The Maine 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.
Maine: June 2026–May 2027 base weekly cap; 26 M.R.S. §§1191 and 1192-A monetary tests. State average weekly wage must be confirmed separately. https://www.maine.gov/unemployment/claimsfaq/ (verified 2026-10-01)
Start with the two highest quarters
Maine averages the two largest wage quarters in the selected base period, divides that average by 22 and rounds down to a whole dollar. Equivalently, add those two quarters and divide by 44. Maine DOL's current FAQ gives a $113 minimum and $649 base weekly maximum for initial claims from June 1, 2026 through May 31, 2027. The worksheet uses that dated schedule, and a blank claim date uses your current local date. A date outside the wage calendar cannot establish an automatic wage estimate; the separate official-award worksheet needs the agency's confirmed weekly amount, account balance and payable weeks.
Enter all four quarters in chronological order, including an explicit zero for a quarter with no covered wages. The agency normally starts with the four completed quarters that precede the most recent one and can consider an alternative period when the regular period does not qualify. Do not mix quarters from the two periods.
The wage test needs the state's applicable average
Under 26 M.R.S. §1192-A(2)(F), each of two different quarters must contain at least twice the applicable statewide annual average weekly wage. Total base-period wages must also reach six times that average. Your personal weekly salary is not the statewide figure.
Enter the average confirmed by Maine DOL for your claim. The linked CWRI historical workbook still ends in 2025 as checked October 1, 2026; this page does not carry its old monetary thresholds into the new schedule. Without a confirmed figure, the weekly formula can be explored, but the wage status and base balance remain unknown. Wages in only one quarter fail the ordinary two-quarter test even if the yearly total is large.
Example: a $500 weekly amount can have a smaller balance
Suppose the four covered-wage quarters are $3,000, $3,000, $10,000 and $12,000. The two largest sum to $22,000, giving a $500 base weekly estimate. If the applicable monetary thresholds are met, the $28,000 wage total produces a rounded one-third balance of $9,333, below 26 × $500 = $13,000. Ten full eligible weeks model $5,000; the entire base balance cannot fund 26 full $500 checks.
Section 1191(4) sets the regular base balance to the smaller of 26 weekly amounts or one-third of covered wages, with the wage-based amount rounded to the nearest dollar. A final payment may be smaller. The 26-week output is a ceiling, not a promise of 26 payments.
Dependents are a separate supplement
The supplement is $25 for each qualifying child, limited to 75% of the base weekly amount. Two approved children in the $500 example add $50 for an eligible week. The separate supplement output requires an explicit count, including zero when none applies.
Only one claimant may receive the allowance for the same child in a week. Age, support, student and disability conditions matter. The balance, modeled total and withholding output here cover the base award; they do not project dependent payments over a partially exhausted claim. Confirm the full determination with Maine DOL.
What changes an actual payment?
The agency must decide separation, availability, work search and weekly certifications. A waiting week is not a paid week. Earnings, pensions and other offsets can change the check. The form models full eligible weeks before those adjustments; it is not an application or an approval decision.
Maine references
- Maine DOL claimant FAQ and current weekly schedule
- 26 M.R.S. §1191: amounts, balance and dependents
- §1192-A: current eligibility conditions
- CWRI historical benefit and wage tables
References checked October 1, 2026. Read the calculation limits or compare New Hampshire's wage table.
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 Maine wage-estimate calendar supports 2026-06-01 to 2027-05-31. 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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