Division of Unemployment Insurance | Who is eligible for benefits?

To receive benefits, you have to meet a minimum earnings requirement during your “base period.”  The base period is the timeframe used to determine if you qualify for UI benefits and to calculate your benefit amount. 

The regular base year period consists of the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before the week you file an initial claim.

Your regular base year period consists of 52 weeks and is determined by the date you apply for Unemployment Insurance benefits, as outlined in the chart below:

If your claim is dated in:
Your claim is based on
employment from:

January 2023
February 2023
March 2023
October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022

April 2023
May 2023
June 2023
January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022

July 2023
August 2023
September 2023
April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023

October 2023
November 2023
December 2023
July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023

To be eligible for Unemployment Insurance benefits in 2022, you must have earned at least $240 per week during 20 or more weeks in covered employment during the base year period, or you must have earned at least $12,000 in total covered employment during the base year period.

To be eligible in 2023, you must have earned at least $260 per week during 20 or more weeks in covered employment during the base year period, or you must have earned at least $13,000 in total covered employment during the base year period. 

The wages earned during your base year will determine the amount of weekly benefits you may receive, and the total amount you can claim in a given year.

For workers who don’t qualify with a standard base year, we have other ways of calculating a base year. Click here for more information on these alternate base years, including if you are filing for Unemployment Insurance benefits after a period of disability.

If you have employment in between your base year period and your date of claim, it is called lag employment. The employer or employers you worked for during that time are called your lag employers.