Ohio Unemployment Calculator

Ohio Unemployment insurance benefits temporarily help individuals who have lost their job through no fault of their own. Claimants can receive financial assistance while they search for a new employer.

But before applying for Ohio unemployment benefits, it’s good to know how much you should be collecting in your weekly earnings.

That’s where the Ohio unemployment calculator can help. Simply input the number of dependents and your recent earnings, and the calculator will estimate your unemployment payment. It’s good to calculate your benefits in case the state of Ohio makes an error in your Monetary Determination Letter. If you disagree with the payment amount, you have the right to file an appeal.

How are Ohio UI benefits calculated?

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) uses a unique formula to calculate your unemployment benefits. This formula for calculating your weekly UI benefits has several steps. The first step involves examining your base period, which is the first four calendar quarters out of the last five complete calendar quarters before you applied for unemployment insurance. You must have worked at least 20 weeks during your base period.

If you do not have at least 20 weeks of work in that time period and an average weekly wage of at least $315, ODJFS can use an alternate base period of the last four complete quarters prior to filing for unemployment compensation.

What is the Weekly Benefit Amount?

Your weekly benefit amount (WBA) will equate to one-half of your average weekly wage during the entirety of your base period. In this way, the Ohio unemployment department is different from other states, which may only look at one or two of your highest earning quarters.

How to determine your WBA

The first step is to take your total base period wages and divide them by the number of weeks that you worked. Example: If you earned $40,000 and worked 48 weeks, your average weekly wage would be $833. The second step involves taking half of this number. Example: 50% of $833 is $417 (rounded to the nearest dollar amount). The third step involves applying any qualifying dependents to the calculation for your WBA.

Allowable dependents

Children, stepchildren, and legally adopted children can count as dependents if the following is true:

1. The dependent children must be under the age of 18 at the beginning of the benefit year, or, if they are older than 18, they are unable to work themselves because of a permanent disability. 
2. You have paid for more than half of their living expenses for the 90 days prior to your benefit year, or the entirety of your parent-child relationship if it was less than that (e.g. they were recently born or recently adopted during this time).

Minimum average weekly wage

There are minimum and maximum benefit amounts you can collect if you meet the term of Ohio unemployment eligibility. In order to claim additional money for dependents, you must have a minimum average weekly wage.

If you have no dependents, to claim the maximum WBA of $561, you must have a minimum average weekly wage of $1,122. If you have one or two dependents, to claim the maximum WBA of $680, you must have a minimum average weekly wage of $1,360. And if you have three or more dependents, in order to claim the maximum WBA of $757, you must have a minimum average weekly wage of $1,514.

Keep in mind that unemployment benefits are taxable income. However, you can defer the taxes on them until the end of the tax year when you file your tax return. This allows you to collect the maximum amount of unemployment benefit payments each week.

Deductible earnings

If you earn any money while collecting unemployment benefits, you must report your earnings when you file your weekly claim. All income must be reported, and may be deducted from your benefit amount. This includes any wages or tips.

Payment types that may also fall into this category are things like severance pay, vacation pay (e.g. for instance, back-owed vacation pay), pensions, company buy-out plans, and workers’ compensation benefits.

You do not have to deduct Social Security, Supplemental Unemployment Benefits (SUB), rental income, stock dividends US National Guard pay for scheduled drills. These types of payments will not turn your full WBA amount into partial unemployment.

Deductible income

Any money you earn must be reported and will be subtracted from your benefits dollar for dollar. Note, however, that you may exempt 20% of your WBA from any deductions due to earnings you’ve made or received during your unemployment claim period. Ultimately, even if your WBA is reduced, you can still collect a partial unemployment benefit.

Let’s look at an example: Suppose your WBA is $500, but you made $300 from a one-time gig during a week you collected unemployment.

20% of $500 = $100

That said, the amount deducted from your benefits would be $300 (how much you made) minus $100, resulting in a $200 deduction. The end result is a weekly benefit amount of $300.

If the amount of money you earn is greater than your WBA, you will get no weekly benefits for that week

How long can you collect unemployment in Ohio?

In many states around the United States, you can collect unemployment benefits for 26 weeks. But in Ohio, the total number of weeks of benefits depends on how many weeks you worked during your base period, starting at 20 weeks and going up to 26 weeks.

For example, if you worked 23 weeks, you can collect your WBA for 23 weeks. If you worked 25 weeks, you can collect your WBA for 25 weeks. And if you worked 26 weeks or more, you can collect unemployment for 26 weeks. Before you fill out an Ohio unemployment application, remember that you must have worked at least 20 weeks during your base period or your alternate base period.