Florida Unemployment Calculator

Florida Reemployment Assistance

How Florida figures your weekly benefit amount

Florida calls unemployment insurance Reemployment Assistance, and the formula is written into state law. Your weekly benefit amount is one twenty-sixth of the wages you were paid in your high quarter, the quarter of your base period in which you earned the most, rounded down to the dollar. It cannot be less than $32 or more than $275 a week. In the default example the high quarter is $6,600, and $6,600 divided by 26 is $253.85, so the estimate is $253 a week. Because a quarter has 13 weeks, the formula works out to about half of an average week's pay in your best quarter.

The $275 cap is reached with $7,150 in your high quarter, which is about $28,600 a year of steady pay. Your base period is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before your claim begins. A claim filed in early October 2026 uses July 2025 through June 2026, and the calculator relabels the wage boxes when you change the date.

Source: Florida Statutes s. 443.111, s. 443.091 and s. 443.036; FloridaCommerce, Reemployment Assistance Benefit Rights Information Handbook, 2026 edition. The 12 weeks follow from s. 443.111(5) and Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment rates for July to September 2025.

Do your wages qualify?

Florida has three wage tests, and you must pass all of them. You need wages in at least two calendar quarters of your base period. Your total base period wages must be at least one and a half times your high quarter wages. And your total base period wages must be at least $3,400. With $6,600 in your best quarter, for example, you need at least $9,900 across the whole base period. Someone who earned $9,000 in a single quarter fails the two-quarter test even though the amount is large. The calculator tells you which test failed. Wages are only part of the picture: FloridaCommerce also decides whether you lost your job through no fault of your own and whether you are able and available for work. You are required to register with Employ Florida, the state's job site, with a valid email address, your work history and a current resume, and if you are out of work for several weeks you may be scheduled for an appointment at a CareerSource Florida center.

How many weeks and how much in total

The number of weeks depends on the state's unemployment rate. For claims submitted during a calendar year, Florida law allows 12 weeks when the average of the seasonally adjusted state unemployment rates for July, August and September of the year before is at or below 5 percent, one more week for each half point above that, and no more than 23 weeks. For claims filed in 2026 that July to September 2025 average was about 4 percent according to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, so the limit is 12 weeks. Your total benefit is the least of 25 percent of your base period wages, $6,325, or your weekly benefit amount times 12. With the $275 maximum that is $3,300.

Our calculation with s. 443.111 for equal wages in all four quarters of the base period.

With uneven pay the 25 percent limit can be the lower one. Someone paid $6,000 in one quarter and $3,000 in another would get $230 a week, but 25 percent of $9,000 is $2,250, which runs out after about 9.8 weeks. The first week in which you meet the requirements is an unpaid waiting week; nothing is deducted from your benefit total for it. After you apply, you return to your Reconnect account every two weeks to request payment, and you must report at least five work search contacts for each week, or three if your county has 75,000 people or fewer.

Working part time while you collect

You must report your gross earnings for every week you request, but part-time work does not always end your payment. The first $58 you earn in a week is not deducted. Every dollar above $58 comes off your weekly benefit amount, and the result is rounded down to the dollar. If you earn more in a week than your weekly benefit amount, you get nothing for that week. FloridaCommerce's example: with a $275 weekly benefit and $100 of earnings, $42 is deducted and the payment is $233. In the default example, $150 of earnings leaves $161 for the week.

Taxes on Florida unemployment benefits

Reemployment Assistance benefits are taxable income on your federal return, and FloridaCommerce sends a Form 1099-G at the end of January. If you choose withholding when you apply, it withholds 10 percent of each payment, which the last line of the result shows. Florida does not have a personal income tax (Florida Constitution, Article VII, Section 5), so the benefits are only taxed federally. For the federal side see are unemployment benefits taxable and the unemployment benefits tax calculator. If you received severance or a vacation payout, the severance pay tax calculator and the PTO payout calculator show what those checks net, and final paycheck laws by state covers when your last check is due. When you go back to work, the Florida salary calculator shows your take-home pay. Worked in another state? Compare the New York, New Jersey and California unemployment calculators.