Missouri Unemployment Calculator

Missouri unemployment insurance

How Missouri figures your weekly benefit amount

Missouri uses your two best quarters. Under section 288.038 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri, your weekly benefit amount is 4% of the average of the two highest quarters in your base period, rounded down to the whole dollar, and it cannot be more than $320. In the default example the two best quarters are $8,000 and $7,500. Their average is $7,750, and 4% of that is $310 a week. You reach the $320 maximum once your two best quarters average $8,000.

Our calculation with RSMo 288.038 and the 20-week limit in RSMo 288.060. People with wages in only two or three quarters can hit the one-third limit described below first.

DES has its own online benefits calculator. It shows the amount to the cent, for example $65.40 where the statute's rounding gives $65, so its figure can be up to $1 higher than this page.

Do your wages qualify?

Your base period is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before your claim starts, and DES dates a claim from the Sunday of the week you file. The standard test, in RSMo 288.030, needs at least $1,500 in one quarter and total base period wages of at least 1.5 times your highest quarter. DES puts it this way: make at least $2,250, with at least $1,500 in one quarter and at least $750 in the rest of the base period. If you fail that test, you can still qualify under the alternate test: wages in at least two quarters and total base period wages of at least 1.5 times the taxable wage base, which is $9,000 in 2026, so $13,500. For example, $1,000 and $14,000 in two quarters fails the standard test but passes the alternate one and pays $300 a week. Because each quarter counts only up to 26 times the weekly amount, that worker's wage credits are $8,800, and one third of them, $2,933.33, limits the claim to about 9.7 weeks.

Source: Missouri DES, Eligibility for Unemployment Benefits. The calculator labels your four quarters from the date you enter.

You must also have lost your job through no fault of your own, or quit for good cause related to the work or the employer, and be able to work and available for work each week.

How many weeks you can collect

DES says twenty weeks of benefits is the most allowed in a benefit year. The statute in force caps the total you can receive, your maximum benefit amount, at 20 times your weekly benefit amount or one third of your wage credits, whichever is less. Wage credits are your base period wages, with each quarter counted up to 26 times your weekly benefit amount. In the default example, 20 times $310 is $6,200.00, well under a third of $29,000, so you could collect for 20 weeks. A worker with $3,000 in each of two quarters gets $120 a week, but one third of $6,000 is $2,000.00, which lasts about 16.6 weeks. A 2015 bill that would have tied the number of weeks to the state unemployment rate never took effect: in Pestka v. State (2016) the override of the governor's veto was held untimely.

The waiting week

The first week of your claim is a waiting week: you are eligible but not paid, and you still have to request payment for it. Missouri pays that week at the end instead. By law it becomes payable once the balance left on your claim is no more than the waiting week amount, so if you draw your full claim you still receive the whole maximum benefit amount.

Working part time: partial benefits

You can receive part of your benefit for a week of less than full-time work. DES lets you earn $20 or 20% of your weekly benefit amount, whichever is greater, without a reduction. Your gross wages for the week are rounded up to the next whole dollar, the allowance is subtracted, the rest comes off your weekly benefit amount, and the result is rounded down to the dollar. DES's example: with a $279 weekly benefit amount the allowance is $55.80, so $102 of wages means a $46.20 deduction and a payment of $232. In the default example, $150 of pay in a week leaves $222. DES also offers an online partial benefits calculator.

Report your gross wages, before deductions, for the week you earned them, even if you will be paid later. That includes tips, commissions, bonuses and show-up time.

Keeping your claim active

File a weekly request for payment every week, starting as early as Sunday, and make the number of work search contacts DES gives you; the statute sets a minimum of three a week unless DES directs otherwise. You must claim a week within 14 days after it ends. If you are eligible, DES says to expect your first payment within 22 days of filing. Benefits can be paid by direct deposit or on a debit card, and the Division of Child Support Enforcement can intercept up to 50% of your weekly benefit if you are behind on child support.

Taxes on Missouri unemployment

DES says unemployment benefits are subject to federal and state income taxes. Under federal rules you can ask for 10% federal income tax withholding with Form W-4V; on a $310 benefit that leaves $279. See are unemployment benefits taxable and the unemployment benefits tax calculator. If your job ended with a 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 Missouri salary calculator, the Missouri salary after taxes guide and the Kansas City salary calculator show your take-home pay. Worked across a state line? Compare the Illinois unemployment calculator.