How much does unemployment pay in Pennsylvania?

The weekly benefit rate is what a full week of benefits pays, and a dependents allowance of up to $8 can be added on top. Pay from part-time work, vacation pay, and severance can each bring a week's payment below the rate.

How L&I works out your weekly benefit rate

L&I starts from the wages your employers reported for your base year, generally the first 4 of the last 5 completed calendar quarters before the week you apply. Who qualifies for unemployment in Pennsylvania explains the base year and the wage tests you must pass.

1. L&I finds your highest quarterly wage: the total you were paid in the base-year quarter when your pay was highest.
2. It looks up that wage on the state's rate table, officially the Table Specified for the Determination of Rate and Amount of Benefits, and reads the weekly rate on that line.
3. It works out 50% of your full-time weekly wage and uses whichever amount is greater.
4. It rounds the result down to the next lower dollar. If your rate comes out below $68, no benefits can be paid to you.

These lines of the 2026 table show the range:

The table also lists the total base-year wages needed to qualify at a rate, such as $2,718 for the $68 rate and $23,869 for the $590 rate. The 2026 rate table in the Pennsylvania Bulletin lists every line.

The $605 top rate is the same as in 2025, because neither condition the law sets for raising it was met. When the top rate does rise, the law limits the increase to 4% of the previous year's top rate.

A worked example from the 2026 table

Say the highest quarter of your base year paid between $15,013 and $15,037, your base-year wages reach the $23,869 that line requires, your full-time weekly wage was $1,150, and you had 26 credit weeks, the base-year weeks when you earned $116 or more.

1. The table's rate on your line is $590.
2. Half of your $1,150 weekly wage is $575, which is less than $590.
3. Your weekly benefit rate is the greater amount, $590.
4. Your maximum benefit amount, the most you may receive in your benefit year, is $590 times 26, or $15,340.

How long unemployment lasts in Pennsylvania shows how your credit weeks set that total.

Extra money for dependents

On top of your weekly benefit rate, the law pays a dependents allowance for each week you are entitled to benefits:

• $5 for a dependent spouse, or for a dependent child if you have no spouse
• $3 for another dependent child

The allowance never tops $8 in a week, and you cannot be paid it for more weeks than your claim pays benefits.

For this allowance, a dependent child is a child or stepchild you wholly or chiefly supported when your benefit year began. The child must have been under 18 then, or be 18 or older and unable to hold any paying job because of a physical or mental infirmity.

Weeks when you work part time

Pay from part-time work comes off a week's payment only above an amount called your partial benefit credit. The credit is 30% of your weekly benefit rate or $6, whichever is greater, rounded up to the next whole dollar. A part-time week pays something only while your earnings stay below your weekly benefit rate plus that credit.

With a $400 weekly benefit rate, for example:

1. Your partial benefit credit is $120, which is 30% of $400.
2. You earn $200 in a part-time week, so $80 of it counts against your benefit ($200 minus $120).
3. That week pays $320 ($400 minus $80).

What you file each week, including the work search in a part-time week, is in the guide to filing a weekly certification in Pennsylvania.

Severance, vacation pay, and pensions

Severance pay

Severance above 40% of Pennsylvania's average annual wage is deducted from your UC. L&I assigns the deductible part to the weeks right after you are separated from your job, at your full-time weekly wage per week. L&I's own example for 2026 runs like this:

1. You receive $35,000 in severance pay.
2. Subtract 40% of the average annual wage ($70,384.08 for 2026), which is $28,153.63. That leaves $6,846.37 of deductible severance.
3. At a $1,100 weekly wage, $1,100 goes to each of the first 6 weeks and $246.37 to the 7th week.
4. Because $1,100 is more than the maximum weekly benefit rate, no benefits are paid for the first 6 weeks. The 7th week is figured using the remaining $246.37.

The severance and pension pay FAQs on L&I's site give the full rule.

Vacation pay

If your job ended permanently, or for an indefinite period, vacation pay does not come off that week's payment. Otherwise, the part of it above your partial benefit credit does.

Pensions and retirement pay

Pensions, retirement pay, annuities, and lump-sum pension payments all have to be reported when you file for UC.

Overpayments taken from later benefits

Benefits you were paid but were not entitled to can be deducted from the benefits you are paid later, whether or not the overpayment was your fault. The appeals and overpayments guide sets out the limits on those deductions, what you owe, and how to appeal.