How the estimates are built
Every estimate on this site applies the formula a state writes into its unemployment, disability or paid leave law to the pay you enter, then caps it with the weekly floor and ceiling in force in 2026, and divides nothing by guesswork: each rule is stored with the document it was read in, on October 20, 2026.
Each state agency publishes a calculator for its own program and nothing else: the unemployment office estimates unemployment, the disability office estimates disability, and none of them says what the check is worth after federal tax or next to the pay it replaces. This site puts the 51 unemployment formulas of the Department of Labor table and the 18 paid leave and disability programs paying in 2026 behind one form, so one pay gives every benefit your state would pay, a week and in total, with the rule that produced it.
1. Unemployment: the Department of Labor table
For all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the qualifying earnings, the weekly benefit formula, the minimum and maximum weekly amounts, the cap on total benefits and the number of weeks come from the table the U.S. Department of Labor publishes for state laws in force on July 1, 2026 (Significant Provisions of State Unemployment Insurance Laws, July 2026), the companion of its yearly Comparison of State UI Laws (DOL state law page). Where a state raised its cap after July 1, the state's own announcement replaces the table: Massachusetts ($1,154 from October 4, 2026, Massachusetts DUA). New Jersey and Washington caps were checked against their 2026 announcements (New Jersey, Washington ESD).
The engine reads each formula as a share of one of four wage bases: the best quarter, the average or the total of the two best quarters, or the pay of the whole base period. When a state offers two methods, as Colorado and Minnesota do, both are computed and the higher one is kept, each with its own cap. The weekly amount is rounded down to the dollar. The total is the lesser of the weeks the state allows times the weekly amount and the share of base-period pay the law sets as a ceiling. Where the number of weeks depends on the state's unemployment rate, the top of the range in the table is used and the range is shown.
| State | What is simplified |
|---|---|
| Alaska | statutory wage table: range shown, no estimate |
| California | The EDD table pays between 1/23 and 1/26 of the high quarter; the engine uses 1/26, so at low wages the estimate can be up to 13% below the table. |
| New Hampshire | New Hampshire pays 1% to 1.1% of annual wages under a statutory schedule; the engine uses 1%, the low end. |
| New Jersey | New Jersey averages pay over the weeks actually worked in the base year; the engine assumes 52 weeks of work. |
| New York | New York pays 1/25 or 1/26 of the high quarter depending on wages; the engine uses 1/26. |
| North Carolina | North Carolina uses the last two quarters of the base period, not the two highest; the engine uses the two highest you enter. |
| Ohio | Ohio averages pay over the weeks actually worked; the engine assumes 52 weeks of work. |
| Virginia | statutory wage table: range shown, no estimate |
| West Virginia | West Virginia uses the median wage of your wage class in a statutory table; the engine uses 55% of your own weekly average. |
2. Paid leave and disability: the agencies and the statutes
Each program's replacement rates, thresholds, weekly maximum, durations and employee premium were read on the agency's page or in the statute, listed at the bottom of its page on this site. Programs that pay by tiers (Washington, Massachusetts, Oregon, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, Maine, the District of Columbia) are computed tier by tier; California's disability and family leave are computed by band, as the Employment Development Department publishes them (EDD benefit table). A program not yet paying, Maryland's, is shown with its start date and no amount.
| Program | Average weekly wage used |
|---|---|
| California State Disability Insurance (DI) | as the agency defines it |
| California Paid Family Leave (PFL) | as the agency defines it |
| New York Disability Benefits Law (DBL) | New York averages the last eight weeks worked; the engine uses your regular weekly pay. |
| New York Paid Family Leave | New York averages the last eight weeks worked; the engine uses your regular weekly pay. |
| New Jersey Temporary Disability Insurance | New Jersey averages the weeks worked in the base year; the engine assumes a full year of work. |
| New Jersey Family Leave Insurance | New Jersey averages the weeks worked in the base year; the engine assumes a full year of work. |
| Rhode Island Temporary Disability Insurance | as the agency defines it |
| Rhode Island Temporary Caregiver Insurance | as the agency defines it |
| Hawaii Temporary Disability Insurance | Hawaii averages the weeks of employment before the disability; the engine uses your regular weekly pay. |
| Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave | The engine averages your two highest quarters, the method Washington uses for most workers. |
| Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave | The engine averages your two highest quarters, the individual average weekly wage Massachusetts describes. |
| Connecticut Paid Leave | The engine averages your two highest quarters. |
| Paid Leave Oregon | The engine divides your base-year pay by 52. |
| Colorado Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) | The engine averages your two highest quarters. |
| Minnesota Paid Leave | The engine divides your highest quarter by 13. |
| Delaware Paid Leave | The engine divides your yearly pay by 52. |
| Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave | The engine averages your two highest quarters. |
| DC Paid Family Leave | The engine divides your yearly pay by 52. |
3. Tax and take-home pay
Federal income tax uses the 2026 brackets and standard deduction of Revenue Procedure 2025-32, with no credit and no other deduction. The tax on a benefit is the tax on your other income plus the benefit, minus the tax on your other income alone. Take-home pay deducts federal income tax, Social Security at 6.2 % up to $184,500, Medicare at 1.45 % (IRS Topic 751) and the employee share of the state leave premium; state income tax is left out on both sides of the comparison. Unemployment and family leave are counted as taxable (IRS Topic 418, Rev. Rul. 2025-4); medical leave is shown as depending on who paid the premiums, because the ruling taxes only the part funded by the employer.
4. Two worked examples
Texas, $60,000 earned over the base period, $18,000 in the best quarter and $16,000 in the second: the law pays one twenty-fifth of the best quarter, $720, capped at $605, so $605 a week. The total is the lesser of 26 weeks and 27% of base-period wages, $16,200: $15,730 over 26 weeks. Take-home pay at that salary is about $969 a week.
Washington paid leave, same wages, twelve weeks to bond with a child: the average weekly wage is the two best quarters divided by 26, $1,231; 90% of the first $915 and half of the rest gives $981 a week, $11,777 for the twelve weeks, with no waiting week for bonding.
5. Limits
- The agency uses the wages your employers reported for its base period, usually the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters; an alternate base period can apply when that one does not qualify you.
- Dependents allowances, paid in about a dozen states, are listed but not added.
- Qualifying rules other than the minimum weekly amount (hours, wages outside the best quarter, the reason you left) are shown as text and not tested.
- Nothing here is legal or tax advice; the agency decides your claim.
Corrections: contact page.