Illinois Unemployment Calculator

Illinois unemployment insurance

How IDES figures your weekly benefit amount

Illinois bases your weekly benefit amount on the two best quarters of your base period. IDES adds the wages you were paid in the two calendar quarters with the most pay and divides the total by 26. The result, rounded to the nearest dollar, is your prior average weekly wage. Your weekly benefit amount is 47 percent of that figure, rounded up to the next dollar, with a floor of $51. For benefit years that begin in 2026 the statewide average weekly wage is $1,334.81, and the maximum weekly benefit amount is $628.

In the default example, the two best quarters are $13,500 and $14,000. Together that is $27,500, which divided by 26 gives $1,057.69, or $1,058 after rounding. Forty-seven percent of $1,058 is $497.26, raised to $498 a week. You reach the $628 maximum once your two highest quarters add up to $34,697 or more, which is about $69,400 a year of steady pay. IDES publishes the result for every wage level in its weekly benefit amount table; the rows below come from that table, and the calculator reproduces all 737 rows of it.

Source: IDES, Table 1 of Weekly Benefit Amounts (CLI110L), which applies to benefit years beginning on or after January 1, 2026. Totals with a spouse or child are the weekly benefit plus the dependent allowance.

Do your wages qualify?

To file a valid claim you must have been paid at least $1,600 in your base period, and at least $440 of it must fall outside the quarter in which you earned the most. Someone with $1,160 in one quarter and $440 in another just qualifies, at the $51 minimum. The calculator runs both tests and tells you which one failed. Wages are only part of the picture: you must also be out of work through no fault of your own, able and available to work, and actively looking, and IDES requires most claimants to register with IllinoisJobLink.com. IDES decides those questions after you file.

Standard or alternate base period

The standard base period is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before your benefit year begins. Your benefit year usually starts on the Sunday of the week in which you first file, so a claim filed in early October 2026 looks at July 2025 through June 2026. If those quarters do not meet the wage tests, IDES can use the alternate base period, which is the four most recent completed quarters. IDES is clear that the alternate base period only helps people who do not qualify under the standard one; it cannot be used to raise your weekly benefit. The calculator follows the same order and shows which base period it used.

Dependent allowances

Illinois pays an extra weekly allowance for a nonworking spouse or for a dependent child, but you cannot claim both. The spouse allowance is 9 percent of your prior average weekly wage, rounded up, and never less than $15. The child allowance for 2026 is 17.3 percent of your prior average weekly wage, rounded up, or, if more, the lesser of $50 or half of your weekly benefit amount. The combined weekly payment is capped at $748 with a spouse and $859 with a child. In the default example, a nonworking spouse adds $96 for $594 a week, and a child adds $184 for $682 a week. A child generally must be under 18, or unable to work because of illness or disability, and you must have provided more than half of the child's support during the 90 days before the week you claim (or at least a quarter of it, if you and your spouse together provided more than half). A spouse counts only if he or she does not have enough wages to collect benefits and you provided more than half of his or her support.

How much you can collect in total

Your maximum benefit amount for the benefit year is 26 times your weekly payment, including any dependent allowance, or your total base period wages if that is smaller. For most people the 26-week figure applies; the wage limit only matters for very small claims. In the default example that is 26 times $498, or $12,948, and $17,732 with a dependent child. One week, usually the first week you claim, is an unpaid waiting week, and after that IDES pays every two weeks for the two weeks you certify.

The figures on this page apply to benefit years that begin in 2026. The law as currently written sets a lower 40.6 percent rate for benefit years that begin in 2027, so the calculator only accepts 2026 dates until IDES publishes its figures for 2027.

Working part time while you collect

You can collect a partial benefit in a week of part-time work if your gross earnings are less than your weekly benefit amount, not counting any dependent allowance. Earnings up to half of your weekly benefit amount do not reduce the payment; every dollar above that comes off, and the result is raised to the next whole dollar. Any dependent allowance is added back after the deduction. IDES's example: with a $110 weekly benefit amount and $76.50 of earnings, $21.50 is over the $55 half, so the payment is $88.50, raised to $89. In the default example, $300 of earnings leaves $447 for the week.

Taxes on Illinois unemployment benefits

Unemployment benefits are taxable income on both your federal and your Illinois return, and IDES makes your Form 1099-G available by the first week of February. You can choose to have taxes withheld at fixed rates of 10 percent for federal income tax and 4.95 percent for Illinois income tax, which is what the last line of the result shows; without withholding you may need to make estimated payments. For the federal side see are unemployment benefits taxable and the unemployment benefits tax calculator. If you received severance or a payout of unused vacation when you left, 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 Illinois salary calculator and the Chicago salary calculator show your take-home pay. Filing in another state? Compare the New York, California and New Jersey unemployment calculators.