Wisconsin Unemployment Calculator

Wisconsin unemployment insurance

How Wisconsin figures your weekly benefit rate

Wisconsin sets your weekly benefit from a single quarter of your work history. Your weekly benefit rate is 4 percent of the wages you were paid in the highest-paid quarter of your base period, rounded down to the whole dollar. A rate under $54 means no benefits are payable, and the rate stops at $370 no matter how much you earned. Because a quarter has 13 weeks, 4 percent of a quarter works out to a little more than half of an average week's pay in that quarter.

The base period is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before the week you file. In the default example you file in October 2026, so the standard base period runs from July 2025 through June 2026 and the best quarter is $7,800. Four percent of $7,800 is $312, which is the weekly benefit rate. You reach the $370 maximum once your best quarter reaches $9,250.

Source: Wisconsin DWD Weekly Benefit Rate Chart (UCB-10-2-P), selected rows. Each $25 of high quarter wages adds $1 to the rate.

Do you have enough qualifying wages?

A rate alone is not enough. DWD also requires wages in at least two quarters of the base period, wages in the three lower quarters that add up to at least four times your weekly rate, and total base period wages of at least 35 times your weekly rate. With a $312 rate you need $1,248 outside your best quarter and $10,920 in total. If the standard base period falls short, DWD uses the alternate base period, the four most recently completed quarters. The calculator checks both and relabels the wage boxes when you change the date. For example, a worker whose wages were $3,000 and then $6,000 in the last two quarters does not qualify on the standard base period but gets a $240 rate on the alternate one.

If you were paid benefits in an earlier benefit year that has ended, you must also have worked since that year began and earned at least eight times the weekly rate of that claim. Quitting without good cause or being fired for misconduct or substantial fault adds requalifying conditions: after a quit you must earn six times your rate, and after a discharge for misconduct or substantial fault you wait seven weeks and must earn 14 times your rate.

Check your benefit computation

After you file your initial claim application, DWD mails you a benefit computation. It explains the amount you can receive if your claim is approved, how that amount was calculated, the maximum number of weeks you could be paid and how to file an objection if you disagree. Compare the quarterly wages it lists with your pay stubs or W-2 forms. A missing employer or wages placed in the wrong quarter can lower your rate or leave you short of the qualifying wage tests, so file an objection quickly if something looks wrong.

Maximum benefit amount and how long benefits last

Your maximum benefit amount is 26 times your weekly rate or 40 percent of your total base period wages, whichever is smaller. It works like a balance: each payment comes off it until it reaches zero or your 52-week benefit year ends. In the default example 26 times $312 is $8,112, which is less than 40 percent of $30,000, so you could collect for up to 26 weeks. A worker with $7,800 in one quarter and $3,000 in each of three others has $16,800 of base period wages; 40 percent of that is $6,720, about 21.5 weeks at $312. Wisconsin also has a waiting week: in each new benefit year no benefit is paid for the first week you would otherwise be eligible.

Working part time: the partial benefit formula

You can work and still collect for a week as long as you work fewer than 32 hours and your gross pay stays at $500 or less. Holiday, vacation, termination and sick pay count toward both limits. DWD takes $30 off your gross pay for the week, multiplies the rest by 0.67 and subtracts that amount, cents included, from your weekly rate. The result is rounded down to the whole dollar, and a result under $5 is not paid. DWD's own example: with a $200 rate and $250 of pay, $220 times 0.67 is $147.40, so the week pays $52. With the default $312 rate, $250 of pay leaves $164.

Source: Wisconsin DWD Maximum Weekly Earnings Chart (UCB-10-3-P), selected rows; pay above $500 or 32 hours of work ends the payment for that week at any rate.

Report your gross earnings for the week you did the work, not the week you are paid, on your weekly claim certification. To stay eligible you must also register with the Job Center of Wisconsin and perform at least four valid work search actions each week unless DWD waives the requirement.

Taxes on Wisconsin unemployment

Unemployment benefits are income for federal and state tax purposes, and DWD reports every payment to the IRS and the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. You can ask DWD to withhold 10 percent for federal tax, 5 percent for Wisconsin tax, or both. A $312 payment with federal withholding leaves $280.80. See are unemployment benefits taxable and the unemployment benefits tax calculator for the federal side. If your last job ended with a severance or 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 Wisconsin salary calculator and the Milwaukee salary calculator show your take-home pay. Worked across the state line? Compare the Illinois unemployment calculator.