Kansas Unemployment Benefits Calculator

How much unemployment will I get if I make $1,000 a week?

A steady $1,000 weekly salary writes a $13,000 quarter — thirteen weeks of pay per calendar quarter. Run that through the Kansas ledger: $13,000 × 4.25% = $552.50 a week.

No clamp touches that number. It sits well above the $165 floor and well under the $663 cap, so $552.50 is the check — before taxes and before any part-time wages you report.

Two checks must pass. Wages must appear in at least two base-period quarters — a steady salary clears that easily — and total base wages must reach 30 times the weekly amount, $16,575 for a $552.50 reading. A year at $1,000 a week books about $52,000, so the 30× test only bites on scattered or part-year work.

Sixteen certified weeks at $552.50 book $8,840 — but the waiting week takes the first one. Fifteen payable checks put $8,287.5 in the plan.

If your $1,000 weeks were not steady, work from the quarter, not the wage. A stretch of overtime that pushed the best quarter past $15,600 runs into the $663 cap — and every dollar above that quarter adds nothing to the check.

Your base period: four quarters, five counted back

Kansas reads the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters. The quarter you are living in never counts.

File in October 2026 and the window runs July 2025 through June 2026. Last year’s holiday quarter may carry the whole claim.

New hires hit this trap every year. Six strong months can sit inside the excluded quarter, leaving the ledger thin.

Two monetary rows must hold. Wages must appear in at least two of the four counted quarters — one blowout quarter alone cannot open a claim. And the total across the base period must reach 30 times the weekly amount your best quarter prices, which is how KDOL sizes the whole account.

The waiting week: your first certification pays nothing

Kansas still runs a waiting week. The first week you certify is usually an unpaid stub at the front of the claim.

You must still file that certification on time and stay otherwise eligible. Skip it and the clock, and the unpaid row, restart.

Budget like the first check arrives in week three. Week one waits, week two pays, and the bank cycle lags behind both — KDOL normally releases payment two to three business days after a clean certification.

Worked example: Celia in Dodge City

Celia led a packinghouse line until the season wound down. Her best quarter totaled $5,400 across four scattered employers.

Four and a quarter percent of $5,400 is $229.50. Wages appear in three quarters, so the two-quarter rule passes — and the 30× test needs $6,885 in total base wages, which her scattered year clears.

Her 25 percent shield is worth $57.38. A $120 weekend job eats $62.62 of it, leaving $166.88 for those weeks.

Report the wages every week she works. Unreported earnings surface in the cross-match and claw the money back with interest.

Why Kansas claims get approved or denied

KDOL weighs three questions on every new claim, and the wage ledger is only the first.

Denials usually trace to the third row. Missed certifications and thin work-search logs sink claims that the wages already passed.

After you file: determinations and the weekly rhythm

The unemployment week runs Sunday through Saturday. Certify each week starting with the first Sunday after you file — and you can file any day of the week after that, though earlier filings move the money sooner.

Answer every question truthfully, including any work and any money earned that week. The earnings question carries the partial shield with it, and vacation, holiday, bonus, pension, or separation pay can reduce or delay a week too — report those when you file and each time they land.

Fourteen calendar days without a certification or other claim activity deactivates everything. Reactivating takes a fresh round of paperwork.

Payments land by direct deposit or the U.S. Bank ReliaCard, normally two to three business days after a clean certification. Holidays move the money, never the deadline.

Part-time work and the 25 percent disregard

Kansas lets you earn a quarter of your weekly rate before the check feels it. That slice is the disregard.

Earnings inside the shield change nothing. Earnings above it come off dollar for dollar. Wages over the full rate zero the week.

A zeroed week still counts against the sixteen. Wage it only when the shift outpays the rate.

Fired or quit: misconduct and good cause

K.S.A. 44-706 draws Kansas’s separation lines. A discharge for misconduct, or gross misconduct, disqualifies the claim.

Gross misconduct covers theft, fraud, and intentional damage to property. Ordinary misconduct includes repeated rule violations after warnings.

Quits need good cause attributable to the work. A hostile workplace or a documented health conflict can qualify; a better commute cannot.

The employer carries the first burden of proof. Your written record — warnings, emails, schedules — decides how the referee hears it later.

Denied? The 16-day appeal window

A determination is not a verdict. Kansas gives you 16 calendar days from the mail date to appeal to an Appeals Referee.

File through the portal or email KDOL.Appeals@ks.gov. State the determination number, the decision, and why you dispute it.

Hearings run mostly by telephone. The referee swears in witnesses, weighs documents, and writes the decision that becomes the record. The ladder climbs from there: a further appeal goes to the Employment Security Board of Review within another 16 days of the referee’s mailing, and district court sits above that.

Keep certifying while the appeal runs. A win pays the held weeks; a silent ledger pays nothing back for the silence.

For employers: the $15,100 wage base and Shared Work

Kansas raised the taxable wage base to $15,100 for 2026, up from $14,000, and the base now indexes toward statewide wages.

Experienced rates run as high as 6.95 percent for 2026, with new employers paying a 1.75 percent entry rate until a record builds — 5.55 percent in new construction.

Firms expanding into Kansas may request an alternate rate based on out-of-state history. Ask before the first rate notice arrives.

The Shared Work program offers a softer lever than layoffs. Employees keep partial hours, partial benefits, and their jobs.

Charges tied to each claim feed the experience record. Contest weak claims inside the window, or the rates absorb them silently.

Four checks before the first certification