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HOW YOUR WEEKLY UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE BENEFIT PAYMENT IS CALCULATED UNDERSTANDING YOUR “BASE PERIOD” Your weekly benefit payment amount depends on how much you were paid during a “base period.” A base period represents one year of your work and wages (four calendar quarters). Calendar quarters are the three-month blocks of time shown in the chart below. Wages earned in your base period are used to calculate your benefit. Your benefit rate is the amount of money you receive if you are eligible for a full week of Unemployment Insurance benefits. Two types of base periods are shown in the chart below. The Basic Base Period is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before the quarter in which you file for benefits. If you have enough wages in your Basic Base Period, we use it when we calculate your benefit payment. If you do not have enough wages in your Basic Base Period, we use your Alternate Base Period to calculate your benefit payment. The Alternate Base Period is the last four completed calendar quarters before the quarter in which you file for benefits. IMPORTANT: If you have enough wages in your Basic Base Period, we do not automatically check to see if your benefit rate would be higher if your Alternate Base Period is used instead. If you think your benefit payment would be higher using your Alternate Base Period, you can ask us to use your Alternate Base Period to calculate your benefit amount. However, if you choose to use the alternate quarter (5th quarter as shown in the chart below) wages for your current claim, you cannot use these wages again in the future. This may affect your ability to qualify for a future claim. For more information, see the section “Requesting a benefit rate recalculation based on Alternate Base Period” in the claimant handbook. Or, see the Frequently Asked Questions section on our website under, “What if I think my rate will be higher using the Alternate Base Period?” For all base periods, the quarter in which you file for benefits does not count as part of your base period. Wages earned during the quarter you filed will not be used to calculate your benefit rate. HOW BASE PERIODS WORK This is an example only. Your base period quarters may differ from those shown. PREVIOUS YEAR CURRENT YEAR 1st Quarter January 1 - March 31 2nd Quarter April 1 - June 30 3rd Quarter July 1 - September 30 4th Quarter October 1 - December 31 5th Quarter January 1 - March 31 Quarter you filed for benefits (Does not count as part of base period) April 1 - June 30 Basic Base Period Wages paid to you during these four quarters make up your Basic Base Period. Alternate Base Period Wages paid to you during these four quarters make up your Alternate Base Period.