California maximum weekly unemployment benefit 2026.

California’s unemployment figures

How the EDD sets the weekly amount

Your base period is four calendar quarters: the standard base period is the first four of the last five completed quarters before your claim starts, and an alternate base period of the last four completed quarters is used only when the standard one does not have enough wages. The EDD takes the quarter in which you were paid the most and reads the weekly benefit amount off its benefit table. The table starts at $40 for highest-quarter wages of $900.00 to $948.99 and rises in steps; from about $2,132 the steps are a steady one dollar of weekly benefit for each $26 of quarterly wages, which is the 1/26 the US Department of Labor describes, until the $450 ceiling at $11,674.01. A few sample bands from the table:

Why 26 weeks is not guaranteed

The maximum benefit amount on a claim is the lesser of 26 times the weekly amount and one half of your base-period wages. A worker whose earnings were concentrated in one quarter can have a high weekly amount but a low total: half of their base-period wages runs out before 26 weeks. That is why the US Department of Labor lists California’s duration as 14 to 26 weeks. The claim year is 12 months, so unused weeks within the ceiling can be claimed later in that year.

Worked examples

The EDD’s own handbook example: highest-quarter wages of $7,489.73 give a weekly amount of $289. With $20,000 of base-period wages, the ceiling is the lesser of 26 times $289 ($7,514) and half of $20,000 ($10,000), so $7,514, a full 26 weeks.

Highest-quarter wages of $12,500.00 are above $11,674.01, so the weekly amount is the $450 maximum; with $30,000 of base-period wages the ceiling is $11,700 over 26 weeks.

Highest-quarter wages of $1,000.00 with only $1,100.00 in the whole base period: the table gives $42 a week, but the earnings test fails, because $1,000 is below $1,300 and the base-period wages are less than 1.25 times the highest quarter ($1,250). No claim is established.

Method

The $40 to $450 range and the earnings test were read from the EDD UI calculator page and fact sheet on November 11, 2026; the benefit table bands are from the EDD handbook DE 1275A (Rev. 49), whose table applies to claims beginning on or after January 2, 2005, the same $450 ceiling the EDD page still states. The estimator looks the weekly amount up in the table for highest-quarter wages up to $2,132, applies the one-dollar-per-$26 pattern above that (the printed table has a typographical duplication around $3,640 that the pattern smooths over), caps at $450, and applies the 26-week and half-of-wages ceilings. It does not handle the alternate base period, partial-week earnings, or the one-week unpaid waiting period.

What this does not cover

• Eligibility reasons unrelated to earnings: how you separated from the job, availability and work-search rules.
• Disability insurance and paid family leave, which have their own, higher weekly maximums.
• Any change to the $450 maximum, which would require legislation; none had been enacted on the page read.
• Federal income tax on benefits, covered on the linked taxability pages.

Figures read from the sources below on November 11, 2026. Last updated November 11, 2026.

Sources

• California EDD: Unemployment Insurance benefit calculator ($40 to $450 a week) (retrieved November 11, 2026)
• California EDD: How Unemployment Insurance Benefits Are Computed, DE 8714AB (base periods, earnings test) (retrieved November 11, 2026)
• California EDD: A Guide to Benefits and Employment Services, DE 1275A (Unemployment Insurance Benefit Table for claims beginning January 2, 2005 or after) (retrieved November 11, 2026)
• US DOL Office of Unemployment Insurance: Significant Provisions of State Unemployment Insurance Laws, effective July 2026 (California row) (retrieved November 11, 2026)