Partial unemployment: how much you can earn while collecting, state by state
You can usually work some hours and still draw a reduced unemployment check. Each state ignores a slice of your earnings and deducts the rest; here is the slice in every state.
Unemployment in Illinois
$406
a week, for up to 26 weeks · $10,556 in all
| Weekly benefit | $406 |
| Weeks payable | 26 weeks |
| Total if you stay unemployed | $10,556 |
| Federal income tax on it, about | $1,147 |
| 10% federal withholding, if you ask (W-4V) | $41 a week |
| State income tax on it | check your state |
| Your take-home pay now, a week | $737 |
| Share of take-home pay replaced | 55 % before tax |
Illinois: 47% of claimant's AWW in 2 highest qtrs; $51 to $628 a week, more with dependents.
Compiled by Radif Partners · How the estimates are built · state laws and agency pages read October 20, 2026
Every state lets you earn something during a week of unemployment and still receive a partial benefit. The rule has two parts: a disregard, the earnings the state ignores, and a reduction for everything above it, usually dollar for dollar. The disregards fall into three groups in the Department of Labor table of July 2026. 11 jurisdictions ignore a fixed dollar amount, 27 ignore a share of your weekly benefit, and 10 ignore a share of what you earned; Michigan and Minnesota instead cut the benefit by 50 cents per dollar, and New York counts hours. The differences are large. On a $400 weekly benefit with $200 of earnings, the check is $400 in Illinois but $240 in Kentucky. Earnings are reported gross, for the week in which you did the work, and once they pass a certain level no benefit is paid for that week, though the claim stays open. The full table of state rules is below.
How a partial week is paid
The state starts from your weekly benefit amount, the figure on your monetary determination. Each week you certify, you report your gross earnings, before taxes and deductions, for the week the work was done, even if the paycheck arrives later. The agency subtracts the disregard from those earnings and takes the remainder off the benefit. If the result is zero or below, that week pays nothing, but the claim remains open and the unpaid week stays available for later in the benefit year, up to the maximum amount.
Part-time work does not suspend the other conditions. You still have to be available for full-time work and keep up your work search, and turning down offered hours or suitable work can cost you benefits. Your employer's report of the hours and your own report should match.
Your full weekly benefit first
Unemployment in Illinois
$406
| Weekly benefit | $406 |
| Weeks payable | 26 weeks |
| Total if you stay unemployed | $10,556 |
| Federal income tax on it, about | $1,147 |
Three kinds of disregard
A fixed amount is the simplest: earn up to it and nothing changes. Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Virginia and West Virginia use this approach, according to the DOL table of July 2026. It favors people with small benefits, for whom the fixed amount is a larger share.
A share of the weekly benefit scales with the size of your claim: half of it in Illinois and Colorado, a fifth in Ohio, a third in Massachusetts and Alabama. A claimant with a high benefit can earn more before losing anything. 27 jurisdictions use a version of this, sometimes with a dollar floor, as in Texas and Pennsylvania.
A share of your earnings works differently: part of every dollar you earn is always kept. Kentucky ignores a fifth of earnings, Connecticut and Nevada a third, Vermont half, and California the greater of $25 or a quarter. Washington ignores $5 plus a quarter of the rest. Under these rules there is always some gain from working more.
A $400 benefit and $200 of earnings, in ten states
| State | Rule | Benefit paid | Benefit plus earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia | $50 | $250 | $450 |
| Indiana | $100 | $300 | $500 |
| Illinois | 1/2 WBA | $400 | $600 |
| Ohio | 1/5 WBA | $280 | $480 |
| Texas | Greater of $5 or 1/4 WBA | $300 | $500 |
| California | Greater of $25 or 1/4 wages | $250 | $450 |
| Kentucky | 1/5 wages | $240 | $440 |
| Washington | 1/4 of wages over $5 | $253.75 | $453.75 |
| Minnesota | WBA reduced by 50 cents for every $1 earned | $300 | $500 |
| Michigan | Reduction of 50 cents per $1 earned below 1.5 x WBA; total benefits plus earnings cannot exceed 1.5 x WBA | $300 | $500 |
The spread is $160 for the same week of work. Michigan and Minnesota stand apart: rather than ignoring a slice, they take 50 cents off the benefit for each dollar earned, so half of your pay is effectively kept. Michigan adds a ceiling: benefit plus earnings may not exceed one and a half times the weekly amount, which here is $600.
New York counts hours
New York is the outlier. The DOL table describes its rule in hours: up to 10 hours of work in a week, as long as earnings stay at or below the maximum weekly benefit. The New York page covers it in more detail.
Every state's rule
| State | Earnings disregarded each week |
|---|---|
| Alabama | 1/3 WBA |
| Alaska | $50 and 1/4 wages over $50 |
| Arizona | $160.49 |
| Arkansas | 40% WBA |
| California | Greater of $25 or 1/4 wages |
| Colorado | 1/2 WBA |
| Connecticut | 1/3 wages |
| Delaware | Greater of $10 or 50% WBA |
| District of Columbia | 1/3 of wages plus $50 |
| Florida | 8 x Federal hourly minimum wage |
| Georgia | $50 |
| Hawaii | $150 |
| Idaho | 1/2 WBA |
| Illinois | 1/2 WBA |
| Indiana | $100 |
| Iowa | 25% WBA |
| Kansas | 25% WBA |
| Kentucky | 1/5 wages |
| Louisiana | Lesser of 1/2 WBA or $50 |
| Maine | $128 |
| Maryland | Less than or equal to $50 |
| Massachusetts | 1/3 WBA |
| Michigan | Reduction of 50 cents per $1 earned below 1.5 x WBA; total benefits plus earnings cannot exceed 1.5 x WBA |
| Minnesota | WBA reduced by 50 cents for every $1 earned |
| Mississippi | $40 |
| Missouri | Greater of 20% WBA or $20 |
| Montana | 1/4 WBA |
| Nebraska | 1/4 WBA |
| Nevada | 1/3 wages |
| New Hampshire | 30% WBA |
| New Jersey | Greater of 20% WBA or $5 |
| New Mexico | 1/5 WBA |
| New York | Up to 10 hrs of work as long as earnings at or below WBA Max |
| North Carolina | 20% WBA |
| North Dakota | 60% WBA |
| Ohio | 1/5 WBA |
| Oklahoma | $100 |
| Oregon | Greater of 1/3 WBA or $168 |
| Pennsylvania | Greater of $21 or 30% WBA |
| Rhode Island | 1/2 WBA |
| South Carolina | 1/4 WBA |
| South Dakota | 1/4 wages over $25 |
| Tennessee | Greater of $50 or 25% WBA |
| Texas | Greater of $5 or 1/4 WBA |
| Utah | 30% WBA |
| Vermont | 50% of gross wages |
| Virginia | $100 |
| Washington | 1/4 of wages over $5 |
| West Virginia | $60 |
| Wisconsin | $30 + 33% of wages in excess of $30 |
| Wyoming | 50% WBA |
Before you accept part-time work
Three practical points. First, compute the week as a whole: in a dollar-for-dollar state, earnings above the disregard add nothing to your income until they are large enough to replace the benefit entirely, so a few extra hours may not pay. Second, report every week honestly; overpayments from unreported earnings are recovered and can carry penalties. Third, if your employer cut your hours rather than ending the job, ask whether your state runs a work-sharing program, which pays a share of the benefit for the hours lost. The unemployment calculator gives the full weekly amount to start from, and the base period guide explains where it comes from.