Who is eligible for Unemployment Insurance in New York?

A claim can be denied for too few wages, for the way your job ended, for turning down a job, or for not being ready, willing, and able to work. The Monetary Benefit Determination you get after filing covers only the wages, so a notice that finds them enough does not mean you will be paid.

Reasons for leaving that can disqualify you

When you file, you choose the reason you are no longer working. The Department of Labor describes each choice this way:

Under New York's Labor Law, these ways of losing a job can stop your benefits:

• Quitting without good cause: no benefits until you have worked again and earned at least 10 times your weekly benefit rate.
• Losing your job through misconduct: the same wait as quitting without good cause, and your wages from that employer do not count toward the wage requirements below. The Department defines misconduct as anything you did or failed to do that you knew was not permitted on the job and that caused, or could have caused, harm to your employer.
• Losing your job because of a felony connected with it: if you were convicted of it or signed a statement admitting it, you cannot collect benefits for 12 months after losing the job.

New York law says a classification of poor job performance alone does not automatically disqualify you.

You are not disqualified for leaving because of a compelling family reason. The law's examples include:

• Domestic violence, verified by documentation, that makes you reasonably believe staying in the job would endanger you or your immediate family
• The verified illness or disability of a member of your immediate family who needs your care for longer than your employer will give you leave
• Moving with your spouse to a place it is impractical to commute from, because your spouse's job moved or the military transferred your spouse

Ready, willing, and able to work

You must be prepared to take a job right away, even at a moment's notice, and be able to work, which rules out being sick, in the hospital, or unable to get child care. New York's Labor Law measures this against your usual work and any other work your training and experience reasonably fit you for. You confirm it for every week you claim.

Turning down a job can also stop your benefits. If you refuse, without good cause, a job offer you are reasonably fitted for by training and experience, you get no benefits from that week until you have worked again and earned at least 10 times your weekly benefit rate. After 10 weeks of benefits, you must accept any job you are capable of doing, as long as it pays at least 80% of your high quarter wages from your base period and not substantially less than the prevailing wage for similar work in your area, unless the law gives you good cause to refuse it, such as a job at an unreasonable distance from home or at a workplace with a strike or lockout. This rule does not apply if you have a recall date or get work through a union hiring hall.

To stay eligible, you must also search for work actively, keep a written record of that search for each week you claim or use the work search tool in JobZone, and attend any appointments your local Career Center requires. Weekly claims and work search covers those rules, and disability benefits covers what happens if an illness or injury keeps you from working.

If your employer disputes why you left

The decision is the Department's. An employer from your base period can protest your claim, saying you quit or lost your job through misconduct, within the time allowed in the notice the Department sends it. The Commissioner of Labor then issues a determination, and either you or the employer can request a hearing on it before an impartial Administrative Law Judge. Denials, appeals, and overpayments explains how to request one and the deadline.

Your base period: which quarters count

The Department measures your wages over a base period of calendar quarters, and New York uses a Basic Base Period and an Alternate Base Period:

Compared with the Basic Base Period, the Alternate Base Period drops the oldest quarter and adds your most recent completed one. Neither one counts the quarter you file in, so pay you receive during that quarter is not used.

An Extended Base Period reaches back further than the Basic Base Period. It is open only to people who received workers' compensation or volunteer firefighters' benefits and do not qualify on the Basic or Alternate Base Period.

The wages you need for a 2026 claim

Whichever base period is used, the Department's Claimant Handbook sets these earnings requirements:

• You were paid in jobs covered by unemployment insurance in at least 2 calendar quarters of your base period.
• For a claim filed in 2026, you were paid at least $3,500 in one calendar quarter.
• Your total base-period wages are at least 1.5 times your pay in your highest quarter.

How much unemployment pays shows the weekly rate those wages set.

Asking for the Alternate Base Period

If your Basic Base Period has enough wages, the Department does not check on its own whether the Alternate Base Period would give you a higher rate, but you can ask it to use the Alternate Base Period. It may raise your rate if your most recent completed quarter paid more than the high quarter wages shown on your Monetary Benefit Determination.

Weigh the cost first: wages used for this claim through the Alternate Base Period cannot be used again, and that may affect whether you qualify for a future claim.

To ask, fill out the Request for Alternate Base Period form at the end of the Claimant Handbook, which the Department links from its Unemployment Insurance Assistance page. Send it by fax to 518-457-9378, or by mail to the address on the form.