South Carolina Unemployment Calculator: Up to $350/Week

Check three earnings requirements before estimating pay

South Carolina DEW requires at least $1,092 in your highest covered base-period quarter, at least $4,455 across the entire base period, and total wages at least 1.5 times the highest quarter. All three conditions apply. A large quarter alone does not establish monetary eligibility.

Enter the four covered wage quarters from your monetary record, including a confirmed zero for a quarter without covered wages. Blank entries remain unknown.

DEW usually uses the first four of the five completed calendar quarters before the claim starts. If those wages do not qualify, an alternate period can use the four most recently completed quarters. Let DEW determine which period applies. Do not combine five quarters or reuse wages already applied to another claim.

Worked example: when one-third of wages sets the balance

Take a claim effective October 13, 2026 whose base period shows $2,600, $7,800, $3,900, $0, the last a confirmed zero. The figures below come from the same function the form above runs on those four quarters and that date.

Because the wage limit is lower, this account pays 15 full weeks of $300 and a final $266, not twenty checks. Concentrated earnings do this: a high quarter that sets a good weekly rate does not also supply enough total wages for the twenty-week ceiling. Type the quarters and date into the worksheet to check each row.

How the weekly amount reaches the $350 cap

The law defines your average weekly wage as the highest base-period quarter divided by 13. Your weekly benefit is half that average, rounded down to a whole dollar. This is equivalent to dividing the highest quarter by 26 and rounding down. DEW currently publishes a $42 minimum and a $350 maximum.

For example, a $5,200 highest quarter gives a $200 weekly estimate if the separate wage tests pass. A $9,100 highest quarter reaches the $350 ceiling; $9,099.99 produces $349. The published DEW cap controls this worksheet. The statutory percentage limit on the department's cap-setting authority is not itself a promise of that percentage to a claimant.

Twenty weeks is a ceiling, and the balance can run out sooner

Under §41-35-50, the initial regular-benefit balance is the smaller of 20 weekly amounts and one-third of covered base-period wages. Round that balance down to a whole dollar. The calculator's maximum-weeks field shows the statutory 20-week ceiling; the dollar balance can support fewer full payments.

The first two examples have identical weekly pay, but the second balance supports only 13 full $200 payments. The third supports 14 full $350 payments plus a remaining $100. Entering ten fully payable weeks for that third example models $3,500; entering twenty still limits the model to the $5,000 balance.

Use the determination to resolve claim-specific issues

Passing the earnings test does not decide separation eligibility or weekly certification. This model covers fully unemployed, otherwise eligible weeks. It excludes earnings deductions for partial work, retirement payments, severance treatment, work-search decisions, waiting-week timing and special programs. A later benefit year also has a separate requalification rule involving work and earnings since the preceding benefit year; this worksheet does not test that history.

Your benefit year generally lasts a year, which does not create a year of weekly payments. Once the available regular balance is exhausted, entering more weeks does not increase it. If DEW has already issued a different amount, use the agency-award worksheet and reconcile the wage record with DEW.

Optional withholding applies the percentage you enter to the weekly estimate. It does not calculate your income-tax liability. For help gathering the four wage entries, read calculator input preparation.

South Carolina sources

• DEW monetary eligibility and base periods
• DEW current weekly minimum, maximum and benefit year
• S.C. Code §41-27-140: average weekly wage; §41-27-150: base periods
• S.C. Code §§41-35-40 and 41-35-50: weekly rounding and maximum potential benefits

Verified October 1, 2026. See methodology and calculation sources.

Supported claim periods and annual handoff

The South Carolina 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.