Weekly benefit amount and weeks in Texas

The weekly benefit

Weekly benefit

$76–$619

Maximum: claims with a start date on or after October 4, 2026

How it is figured

TWC takes the quarter of your base period with the highest wages and divides it by 25. The result is rounded to a whole dollar. Your weekly benefit amount will be between $76 and $619 for claims starting on or after October 4, 2026. The minimum and maximum change every October.

Official

Official table or notice

Law: Tex. Labor Code secs. 207.002, 207.006

The wage test

You must have wages in at least two quarters of your base period, and your total base-period wages must be at least 37 times your weekly benefit amount. If you got benefits on an earlier claim, you must also have earned at least six times your new weekly benefit amount since that claim began.

Your base period is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before your claim starts. An alternate base period is possible only if you could not work for at least seven weeks in a base-period quarter because of a medically verifiable illness, injury, disability or pregnancy, and you file within 24 months after it began. Call 1-800-939-6631 to ask if you qualify for it.

The state's wage tests

• Wages in at least 2 base-period quarters and total base-period wages at least 37 times your weekly benefit amount — If you had an earlier benefit year, you must have earned at least 6 times your new weekly benefit amount since it began.

Law: Tex. Labor Code sec. 207.021(a)(6)-(7)

Official source: Source page

Estimate your weekly benefit

Enter the gross wages (before taxes) you were paid in each quarter of your base period. We apply the state's own formula to your numbers.

The state's formula: your highest quarter ÷ 25, rounded up; at least $76 and at most $619

How long it lasts

Up to 26 weeks.

The most you can get in your 52-week benefit year is the lower of 26 times your weekly benefit amount or 27 percent of your total base-period wages. So benefits last up to 26 weeks; with lower total wages they run out sooner. The weeks do not have to be in a row.

Law: Tex. Labor Code sec. 207.005

Official source: Source page

Waiting week

TWC holds the benefits for your first payable week as a waiting week. You can be paid for it later, after you have been paid at least two times your weekly benefit amount and you either go back to full-time work or use up your benefits. Request your waiting-week payment online in UBS or through Tele-Serv.

Law: Tex. Labor Code sec. 207.021(a)(8), (c)

Official source: Source page

Working part time

If you work part time, you may still get partial benefits if you report all your work and earnings and keep looking for full-time work. You can earn up to 25 percent of your weekly benefit amount (at least $5) before TWC lowers your payment. Above that, each dollar you earn lowers your payment by a dollar. If you earn more than 125 percent of your weekly benefit amount, or work your job's usual full-time hours, you get no benefits that week.

Earnings not deducted (as the data states it)

The amount not deducted is the greater of $5 or 25% of your weekly benefit amount.

Law: Tex. Labor Code sec. 207.003

Official source: Source page

What applies in every state

• You must have earned enough wages, or worked enough, during a period called the base period. In most states it is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before you file.
• It generally takes two to three weeks after you file to get your first payment. Some states require a one-week waiting period, so the second week you claim is the first week paid.
• Unemployment benefits count as income for federal income tax. You must report them on your federal tax return.

  Law: 26 U.S.C. 85(a)

Free help

Call 1-800-939-6631. Legal aid and other free help in Texas → Official sources →