Weekly unemployment insurance benefits set to increase

The state Department of Labor is raising the maximum unemployment insurance benefit rate from $504 per week to $869 per week beginning next Monday, and benefit checks will reflect the change the following Tuesday. 

According to DOL, 27% of recipients will see the new maximum and an additional 28% will have their benefits go up. The department explained that after the state repaid its $7 billion federal Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund loan debt as part of the 2025 state budget, more benefits can be doled out, and businesses will save on the Interest Assessment Surcharge. Minimum benefits are not expected to increase. 

The state’s trust fund was swiftly depleted as both the unemployment rate and the number of claims skyrocketed in 2020, reaching nearly 400,000 claims one week in April of that year. New York borrowed from the federal government to help sustain payments but in the years since, has needed to repay the money and rebuild the fund. As it regained it’s footing, the maximum benefit weas frozen at $504. 

The move was made possible with funding from the state’s budget reserves. Usually, the pot of money is treated as a rainy day fund that even federal cuts don’t warrant the use of, but the business community coaxed Hochul into wiping out the debt to ease the burden on small businesses. 

“By paying off this unprecedented Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund debt, we are delivering long-overdue relief to New York’s workers and businesses,” she said in June. 

The taxable wage base for employers – the portion of an employee’s wage that an employer pays taxes on – will increase from $12,800 this year to 18% of the state’s average wage, rounded to the nearest $100, in 2026 and beyond.

State Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon told reporters Thursday that the pandemic and the mass of unemployment claims it created led to issues with the trust fund’s solvency, but barring a similar incident, the fund should be stable going forward. 

“Currently, unemployment is at a decent level, and as we're speaking the fund is solvent, and we're building it up every quarter as the payments come in,” Reardon said.