Oregon Unemployment Benefits Calculator
Oregon measures a claim differently than any neighbor. One input — total base-year wages — prices the whole week.
The gauge below runs the official math. Your base-year total sets the check, the pot, and the partial-week shield.
Every figure here tracks ORS 657.150. Numbers reflect claims filed on or after June 28, 2026.
Gauge Nº 1 · The calculator
Run your year through the rain gauge
Type one number — your total base-year wages. The gauge applies the rate, the floor, the cap, and the pot.
Add the highest quarter to test the gates. Add part-time wages to preview a partial week.
Toggle the withholding switches to see a net figure. The gauge shows what each week actually leaves behind.
Results appear in statute order: rate first, then gates, then the pot. Nothing is estimated before it is computed.
The gauge mirrors statute, not the department. Your OED wage determination remains the number that pays.
Gauge Nº 2 · The formula
Oregon reads the whole year, not the best quarter
Nearly every state seeds the check from your strongest quarter. Oregon instead averages the entire base year.
ORS 657.150(4)(a) writes the rule plainly. Multiply total base-year wages by 1.25%, then round down.
A $56,000 year pays $700 a week. Every extra $8,000 of wages adds another $100.
Rounding matters at the margins. A raw $600.75 computes to a $600 check, never $601.
Two workers with identical annual totals draw identical checks. Their quarterly shapes are irrelevant to the rate.
That is the philosophical split from Washington and California. Both neighbors key money to peak-quarter power.
The total-wages design also changes the incentive at the margin. Overtime helps the Oregon claim for a full year.
It even survives a job change mid-year. The total carries, no matter how many employers wrote the paychecks.
Oregon keys it to staying power instead. A waitress with even quarters converges toward an engineer with one spike.
The rate ignores timing within the year too. January wages count exactly as much as December ones.
One monster quarter cannot rescue three thin ones here. Only the annual total moves the needle.
| Total base-year wages | × 1.25% | The weekly check |
|---|---|---|
| $18,000 | $225.00 | $225 |
| $30,000 | $375.00 | $375 |
| $42,000 | $525.00 | $525 |
| $56,000 | $700.00 | $700 |
| $66,000 | $825.00 | $825 |
| $80,000 | $1,000.00 | $902 (cap holds it) |
Steady work wins under this design. Spiky incomes convert poorly unless the annual total holds up.
Commission salespeople should run two years before judging. The formula can surprise in either direction.
The one-line version travels well: check equals year times 0.0125. Everything else in this guide hangs off it.
Gauge Nº 3 · The brackets
Where your year lands between $211 and $902
Oregon’s dollar limits are percentages of the state average weekly wage. The floor is 15%; the ceiling 64%.
The department recomputed that average this summer. Claims filed on or after June 28, 2026 use $211 to $902.
The new range rides a state average weekly wage of $1,410.13. That average climbed 3.4% over the year.
Timing matters more here than anywhere. Brackets freeze at filing, so a June 20 claim keeps 2025’s range.
The frozen range follows the claim for its whole benefit year. Renewal comes only with the next claim.
Any year past $72,160 computes above $902. From there to six figures, every check stays identical.
Under $16,880, the raw rate sinks below $211. The floor lifts it — and quietly shortens the draw.
A $96,000 year computes to $1,200 raw. The cap trims $298 every single week of the draw.
The June reset is a bigger deal than it looks. Claim near the boundary, and timing swings money both ways.
Across twenty-six weeks that is $7,748 surrendered. The extra wages still help the gates and the pot.
Both thresholds move every June, riding the same average wage. Check the brackets before you file.
Gauge Nº 4 · The gates
Two doors in: wage math or five hundred hours
The standard door needs $1,000 in total wages. It also needs a total at least 1.5× your highest quarter.
That second test punishes spiky histories. Three thin quarters cannot cover half a monster one.
Run the arithmetic yourself: highest quarter $30,000 demands $45,000 total. Anything less fails the gate.
The second door is Oregon’s signature. Five hundred covered hours in the base year qualify on their own.
Hourly crews and seasonal workers clear this door when wages scatter thin. The hours do the talking.
Hours come from covered employment only. Off-the-books work counts for nothing on either door.
Keep pay records that show hours, not just dollars. The hours door opens only with proof.
Both doors shut? The alternate base year — the last four completed quarters — gets its turn automatically.
Wage math undercounts part-time caregivers and harvest crews. Hours count what wages alone would erase.
Gauge Nº 5 · The pot
Why the check holds for a full twenty-six weeks
Oregon caps the total at the lesser of two figures: 26 times the weekly check, or one-third of base wages.
Here’s the quirk. Twenty-six weeks at 1.25% consumes 32.5% of your wages — just under the one-third ceiling.
So the pot never binds for raw-formula rates. Only the $211 floor can shorten a draw.
The floor binds because it pays more than 1.25% earns. Twenty-six floored checks can outrun the third.
Every other claimant rides the full calendar. The pot holds, week after week, to twenty-six.
The pot also caps partial weeks inside it. Every payment, full or partial, draws down the same reserve.
| Base-year total | Weekly rate | One-third of wages | 26 × rate | Paid weeks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $14,000 | $211 (floor) | $4,666 | $5,486 | 22 |
| $20,000 | $250 | $6,666 | $6,500 | 26 |
| $30,000 | $375 | $10,000 | $9,750 | 26 |
| $64,000 | $800 | $21,333 | $20,800 | 26 |
Read line one slowly and let it sink in: the floor lifted the rate, and three weeks vanished.
The math is unforgiving but predictable. Divide one-third of your wages by $211 to find your own week count.
Below the floor line, smaller years can pay shorter claims. Everywhere else, the calendar runs its length.
Appeal a week count only with the wage determination open beside you. The pot math hides in plain sight there.
Most claims never touch this ceiling. The pot exists for edge cases, and edge cases only.
Gauge Nº 6 · The base period
Which quarters count — and when Oregon swaps the year
The standard base year is the first four of the last five completed quarters. The current quarter never counts.
File in October 2026 and the window runs July 2025 through June 2026. Wages from July onward wait outside.
That lag surprises seasonal workers most. A strong summer sits uncounted on an autumn claim.
The calendar runs on completed quarters, not pay stubs. A quarter counts once it has fully closed.
Oregon’s answer is the alternate base year. If the standard window pays nothing, the last four completed quarters apply.
The swap happens automatically inside the claim. You never have to request it or argue for it.
The ABY favors recent starters. Twelve months of fresh wages beat a stale window every time.
Sometimes the standard year still pays better. Compare both windows when your recent quarters were the strong ones.
The wage determination letter names the window it used. Read that line before arguing anything else.
New workers should watch the calendar instead. A January layoff often misses the freshest quarters entirely.
Run both windows through the calculator anyway. Five minutes of math beats a smaller determination letter.
A past disqualification? Earn six times your weekly benefit in covered work, and the gate reopens.
Gauge Nº 7 · The claim sheet
Priya in Hillsboro: one claim, measured end to end
Priya ran test tooling at a Hillsboro fab until a spring consolidation cut her shift.
Her base year totaled $64,000, with a highest quarter of $21,800. The wage gate clears easily.
$64,000 × 1.25% lands exactly on $800. No cap, no floor — just the raw formula.
The pot comes to $20,800 — twenty-six checks at $800. One-third of her wages allowed $21,333.
The 32.5% quirk holds, as it almost always does. Her claim runs the full twenty-six-week calendar.
- 1Files the Sunday after her last shift. Frances Online takes the claim in about twenty minutes.
- 2Serves the unpaid waiting week while OED processes wages. Week two is the first paid week.
- 3Logs five work-search activities weekly — two of them direct contacts at other fabs.
- 4Works one partial week at $340 gross. The $266 shield absorbs most of it: $726 pays.
- 5Elects both withholdings — 10% federal, 6% Oregon. The check nets $672 every week.
Twenty-five paid weeks later, the claim closes at $20,000 cash. The waiting week never paid a cent.
Priya’s numbers are ordinary on purpose. Most Oregon claims look roughly like this one.
Swap in your own wages and the sheet repeats. That is the point of a worked example.
The next worked example flips the script. Small years behave differently, and the differences matter.
Gauge Nº 8 · The waiting week
The waiting week: claim it first, collect for it never
Oregon still runs one unpaid waiting week per benefit year. The statute is ORS 657.155(1)(d).
Claim it through Frances even though nothing pays. Until a week is claimed, the claim barely moves.
The waiting week must be served before anything processes. No decisions, no payments, no determinations.
The Governor can waive the week in a declared emergency. That happened once, during the pandemic.
Budget for it as a lost week. Twenty-six potential checks shrink to twenty-five on every claim.
New benefit years serve fresh waiting weeks too. Refilers should expect the unpaid week all over again.
The week also serves before partial payments. Nothing dodges it, not even a light claim.
Skipping the waiting-week checkbox stalls everything behind it. Claim week one, collect from week two.
Gauge Nº 9 · Partial weeks
Part-time hours and the $155.50 shield
Oregon lets you work part-time and draw benefits in the same week. The math hinges on one shield.
The shield is the greater of $155.50 — ten times the $15.55 minimum wage — or a third of your check.
Wages inside the shield cost nothing. Wages above it come off the check dollar for dollar.
On small checks the third wins the comparison. On big checks the $155.50 floor does the work.
| Gross wages this week | Above the $266 shield | Payment on an $800 check |
|---|---|---|
| $150 | — none | $800 in full |
| $266 | — none | $800 in full |
| $340 | $74 | $726 |
| $500 | $234 | $566 |
| $800 | — at the line | $0 for the week |
Cross the benefit amount itself and the week pays nothing. Report gross wages every week, always.
Gross means before deductions, not take-home. Taxes and shifts come out of your pocket, not the state’s.
The statute pegs the shield to the standard rate — $15.55 statewide from July 1, 2026.
Holiday and vacation payouts count as wages too. They hit the same shield as earned hours.
Partial weeks do not extend the pot. Every check, full or reduced, drinks from the same twenty-six-week reserve.
One planning note closes this section. Steady twenty-hour weeks often beat feast-or-famine months under this formula.
Keep gross wage records for every partial week. The certification asks, and the audit checks.
Gauge Nº 10 · Work search
Five weekly checkmarks, two of them employer doors
Oregon requires five work-search activities every week. At least two must be direct employer contacts.
The remaining three can be interviews, résumé submissions, job fairs, or re-registration on the state job board.
Keep the dated log anyway. OED audits records, and an undocumented search counts as zero.
A contact means someone actually hiring in your line. Random drop-offs at unwelcoming shops do not count.
Log each entry the day it happens. Names, dates, methods, and outcomes — four fields, every time.
Full-time self-employment can pause the requirement. The UI Special Programs Center — 503-947-1800 — handles waivers.
Union members log dispatch hall check-ins as activities. The hall counts when it controls the hiring pipeline.
Report the log honestly even in slow weeks. Weak effort reads as non-compliance to a reviewer.
An application, an interview, a registered résumé, a workshop, or a fair — each logs once weekly.
Gauge Nº 11 · Filing
Filing through Frances Online without the runaround
Frances Online is Oregon’s single front door. The portal takes initial claims and weekly certifications around the clock.
Prefer a human voice instead? Call 1-877-345-3484 — save it in your phone as 1-877-FILE-4-UI.
Gather employer names, dates, and wages for the last eighteen months. File in the first week you are unemployed.
Each weekly claim covers one completed calendar week. Certify even when the week paid nothing at all.
Miss a week? File late rather than never. Late weeks need a written good-cause reason to pay.
Watch the status messages page inside Frances. It names exactly what the claim is waiting on.
The waiting week burns during processing either way. Late claims only push the first check further out.
One claim per week is the rule. Double filings create identity flags that freeze payments for review.
Save the confirmation number for every weekly filing. It is the receipt when disputes start.
One certification, one completed week, every gross dollar reported. The rhythm pays better than bursts.
Gauge Nº 12 · The service picture
Waiting on OED: the 2026 service picture
Oregon’s unemployment rate sat at 5.2% in July 2026 — among the nation’s highest. Claim volume runs heavy.
Payrolls shed 4,100 jobs that month. Construction and manufacturing took the sharpest cuts across the state.
The department has been candid about strain. Its dashboard logged 64% of calls answered within thirty minutes in January.
A reform plan announced in March 2026 targets those waits. Hiring, training cohorts, and callback tools anchor it.
File online rather than by phone when you can. Online claims skip the queue entirely.
Check the status messages page inside Frances before calling. Most claim questions get answered there first.
Respond to any department letter immediately, whatever it says. Silence converts requests into denials fast.
Patience here is a strategy, not surrender. Clean files simply move faster than messy ones.
A heavy-claim state processes slower at the edges. File early, certify on time, and expect patience.
Gauge Nº 13 · Disqualifications
Quits, misconduct, and the six-times toll
Quitting without good cause or firing for misconduct stops benefits. Oregon reads both narrowly.
Good cause means a reasonable person would have quit too. Documented safety, health, or harassment issues qualify.
Misconduct means deliberate disregard of the employer’s interests. Poor fit or slow output is not misconduct.
A disqualification is not always forever. Six times your weekly benefit in covered work reopens the gate.
That requalification money must be new covered wages. Severance, cash jobs, and gifts do not count.
Vacation and holiday payouts offset the check — they are wages under ORS 657.150(7). Plan around them.
If Oregon’s jobless rate crosses the 8% trigger, extended benefits add up to twenty weeks. The reserve sits ready.
Eligibility decisions arrive as written notices. Every one of them carries its own twenty-day appeal clock.
Keep copies of everything you send the department. Paper trails win these arguments quietly, every time.
Documented medical issues, unsafe work, or verified harassment can justify a quit. Evidence carries the argument.
Gauge Nº 14 · Appeals
Twenty days to push back — the appeal ladder
Disagree with the wage determination? The appeal window is twenty days from the notice date.
File through Frances Online, or call 503-947-3149 and leave a detailed message. Both routes count officially.
A hearing follows before an administrative law judge. Losing there opens a second twenty-day window to the Employment Appeals Board.
The judge weighs documents and sworn testimony alike. Witnesses and exhibits beat assertions every session.
Keep claiming weekly throughout. A reversal pays the weeks; a lapsed claim pays nothing.
Appeals cost nothing but attention. Missing the postmark is the only unforgivable error here.
Employers appeal too, usually contested separations. Winning the first hearing usually ends their interest for good.
Never skip a hearing you requested and confirmed. No-shows lose by default, whatever the paperwork said.
Dates, pay stubs, and written notices beat memory. Bring the paperwork the determination quotes.
Gauge Nº 15 · Taxes
The 1099-G, Oregon’s own tax, and the 6% switch
Federal taxes touch every Oregon check. So does state income tax — Oregon offers no UI subtraction.
You can prepay from the claim itself. Elect 10% federal withholding, 6% state, or both.
Both switches live inside your Frances account. Flip them mid-claim whenever the budget demands.
On Priya’s $800 check, the elections hold back $128 weekly. A full draw sets aside $3,328.
The 1099-G arrives every January. It reports the gross, not the net you actually received.
Tax the gross even when nothing was withheld. The elections reduce withholding, never taxable income.
Oregon’s dual bite surprises new claimants most. Plan the January bill before the first check lands.
Withholding never changes eligibility or the rate. It only changes the size of the check that arrives.
Revisit the elections after any job change. New wages change the math that April will run.
OED mails the 1099-G every January. Copy its numbers straight onto the federal and state returns.
Gauge Nº 16 · Mid-claim changes
Life changes mid-claim: report, don’t guess
New job? The claim ends the week full-time work starts, not the week the offer lands.
Returning part-time? Keep certifying and reporting wages — the shield may keep a payment alive.
School or training? Ask before enrolling. Some approved programs protect the work-search requirement entirely.
Moving out of state? The claim stays Oregon’s, but the work search follows the new address.
Jury duty, illness, or a missed certification week? Report the reason in the following certification.
Severance agreements deserve a question before signature. Allocation rules decide which weeks they offset.
Every change gets reported in the weekly certification. Silence is what turns benefits into overpayments.
Temporarily leaving town is fine as long as you keep searching. Registration stays where the work is.
A move is also the moment to recheck the work search. Five activities follow you there.
When in doubt, always report it. OED corrects honest filings; it punishes quiet ones instead.
Gauge Nº · The determination
Reading your wage determination line by line
The wage determination is OED’s written verdict. It names the window, the wages, and the weekly rate.
Check the base window first. A wrong window means the wrong year fed the whole formula.
Then count the employers listed. Missing employers mean missing wages, and missing wages shrink checks.
Compare each quarter’s figure against your own records. Pay stubs and W-2s settle arguments quickly.
Multiply the printed total by 1.25% yourself. The math should match the printed weekly benefit exactly.
Anything off gets twenty days to protest. The appeal section above covers exactly how that works.
Protest in writing even when a call felt friendly. Written protests create the record that counts.
Determinations post inside Frances under the correspondence tab. Download every letter the claim produces, dated.
Gauge Nº · The timeline
The money timeline, week by week
Sunday marks the start of Oregon’s claim week. File the initial claim early in that first week.
The waiting week serves while the department verifies wages. No money moves during it.
Certify every Sunday afterward, even with zero wages earned. Consistency keeps the claim alive.
Payment follows processing, not certification. Watch Frances for the week’s status before calling anyone.
Choose direct deposit or the state debit card inside Frances. Both carry the same weekly amount.
Keep every determination and payment record together. Reconciliation in January depends on that folder.
A single folder holds the whole claim. Paper organization sounds small until January asks for it.
Oregon pays after the week closes, never during it. Sunday certifications fund the following week.
Gauge Nº · The checklist
Six things to gather before you file
A complete first file always moves fastest. Half-prepared claims wait in correction queues instead of paying.
- 1Employer names, addresses, and phone numbers for the last eighteen months.
- 2Exact employment dates for each job, including partial years and seasonal returns.
- 3Wages per employer, cross-checked against final pay stubs or a W-2.
- 4Your reason for separation, stated in one plain sentence per employer.
- 5Direct deposit routing and account numbers, if you want the fastest payment.
- 6Your driver license or state ID, plus immigration documents if any apply.
Union members add the dispatch hall number. School employees add their expected recall date.
Twenty minutes of gathering saves weeks of correction loops. The checklist is the whole game here.
Missing documents surface later as identity flags. Those flags freeze payments for longer than anyone likes.
Gauge Nº · Overpayments
Overpayments: when the gauge runs backward
An overpayment is money the department says it should not have paid. Common causes are honest ones.
A late wage report, a missed certification answer, or a retroactive employer correction can trigger one.
OED bills the balance and pursues it. Future benefits can offset until the debt clears.
Faultless claimants can apply for a waiver. Waiver relief depends on the facts and the program’s rules.
Disputed overpayments get the same twenty-day appeal clock. Nothing about that deadline softens here.
Payment plans exist for balances that stand. The department would rather collect slowly than never.
Interest accrues on unpaid balances month after month. Early contact costs less than silence in every scenario.
Report everything the week it happens. Honest corrections cost weeks; discovered omissions cost everything.
Gauge Nº · The commission year
Nadia in Bend: when the gate says no
Nadia sold roofing contracts around Bend and cashed a $52,000 commission year at her peak.
Her best quarter alone ran $36,000. The gate demanded $54,000 — one and a half times that quarter.
Her total fell short, and the wage door shut. The raw formula would have paid $650 a week.
The hours door offers salaried salespeople little. Her logged hours never approached five hundred.
The alternate base year became her route. The last four completed quarters dropped the spike and added fall sales.
The new window totaled $44,000 with a $15,000 top quarter. Both gates passed on the second look.
The weekly check came to $550 — a hundred less than the raw math promised. Still a claim.
The lesson is not pretty, but it is honest. Spiky Oregon years pay through the side door or not at all.
Commission-heavy years should also check the hours route. Some spiky years hide enough covered hours to pass.
Run the 1.5× test before filing anything. Knowing the outcome beats discovering it in a denial.
Gauge Nº · Four drills
Four quick drills before you file
Each drill uses the statute exactly as written. Thirty seconds each, no calculator required.
Base year $40,000. Multiply by 1.25%: the check is $500.
Highest quarter $20,000. The total must clear $30,000, plus the $1,000 floor.
Base year $90,000. The raw rate is $1,125 — the check prints $902.
Check $600, wages $300. The shield holds $200, so $100 comes off.
Drill 3 is the six-figure claimant’s drill. Drill 4 is every part-timer’s weekly ritual.
If all four made sense, the statute holds no surprises. File with confidence after that.
Run the same drills on your own numbers next. The gauge will simply confirm your arithmetic.
Gauge Nº · Other money
Benefits against severance, pensions, and other pay
Termination pay interacts with the check in specific ways. The statute sorts it into categories.
Accrued vacation and holiday pay count as wages. They offset the check through the shield, week by week.
Severance depends on how it is allocated. Lump sums can spread across weeks and shadow the claim.
Pensions can reduce the check when they trace to base-period work. The offset follows federal rules.
Social Security does not reduce Oregon’s check. The two programs run on separate ledgers here.
Ask before signing anything at separation. One signature can reshape the whole benefit year.
When the categories blur, get the ruling in writing. Verbal reassurances do not survive audits.
Every conversation with OED gets noted in the file. Make sure your side of it is written.
Sign nothing, then ask, then sign. The claim you save may be your own.
Gauge Nº 17 · Refiling
When the year runs out: refiling in Oregon
A benefit year lasts twelve months from the claim date. Exhaust twenty-six weeks before that, and the claim is done.
Worked enough since? A new benefit year opens after the old one expires. The fresh year re-runs the whole gauge.
New wages replace old ones in the formula. A stronger interim year can price a bigger weekly check.
A weaker one may drop you below a gate. Run both years through the calculator before refiling.
Extended benefits, if the 8% trigger ever fires, extend the current year. They do not open a new one.
The old claim’s waiting week does not carry over. A new benefit year serves its own unpaid week.
Keep the old determination handy when refiling. Comparing windows takes one minute with both in hand.
Refile the week after expiry, not before. Early filings get bounced to the exhausted claim.
Gauge Nº 18 · The employer side
Who fills the tank: Oregon’s employer taxes
Benefits come from employer payroll taxes, never from your own contributions. Oregon asks nothing of workers.
Employers pay on the first $56,700 of each worker’s 2026 wages. That taxable ceiling rose 4.4% this year.
Rates run 0.9% to 5.4%, set by each employer’s layoff history. Frequent layoffs pay the steepest rates.
New employers start near 2.4% until they build a record. The experience rating follows them for years.
Your claim never changes an employer’s rate by itself. Rates move on annual experience summaries instead.
Workers should still know the tank’s size. Trust-fund health decides whether extended benefits could ever fire.
None of this changes your math. The worker-facing formula ignores employer rates completely.
It only explains why the fund survived every recession so far. Employer taxes refill what claims drain.
A solvent fund keeps twenty-six weeks untouchable. The employer side guards your calendar.
Gauge Nº 19 · The small year
Cole in Medford: the floor changes everything
Cole stacked retail seasons in Medford and cleaned up $14,600 across the base year.
The raw formula pays $182. The floor refuses, and the check lifts to $211 instead.
Now the pot wakes up. One-third of $14,600 is $4,866 — but twenty-six checks would total $5,486.
The one-third figure binds for the first time. The claim runs twenty-two weeks, then stops.
Still, the floor paid him a bonus rate. Without it, twenty-six weeks would have totaled just $4,732.
The trade is weeks for rate. Cole buys four extra dollars weekly with three lost weeks.
Every small year should run both windows too. One strong recent quarter can flip the verdict.
Cole’s log discipline kept every week payable. Small checks punish paperwork errors hardest of all.
Under $16,880, the floor rewrites the claim. Weeks shrink, but each week pays above the formula.
Gauge Nº 20 · The glossary
Claim terms, decoded in plain English
The first four of the last five completed quarters. It holds every wage the formula reads.
One and a quarter percent of the base-year total, rounded down, then bracketed.
Twenty-six checks, or a third of the wages — whichever totals less. Rarely the latter.
The first claimed week of a benefit year. It certifies but pays nothing.
The disregard: $155.50, or a third of the check. Wages inside it are free.
The state portal for filings, certifications, appeals, and withholding elections.
The last four completed quarters. It rescues claims the standard window fails.
OED’s written verdict on your rate. The document every dispute starts from.
Gauge Nº 21 · The mistakes
Seven gauge readings claimants get wrong
Each of these costs real money somewhere in the draw. All seven are avoidable with one careful afternoon.
The waiting week is a checkbox, not a formality. Claim it before anything else.
The standard window is four of the last five completed quarters. Verify it, never assume.
OED audits surface overpayments, and recovery arrives with interest attached.
Or five with a single employer contact. Either version fails the weekly review.
Late appeals die on arrival, however strong the underlying case looks.
April arrives with a bill the weekly checks never reserved for.
Vacation and holiday payouts offset the check as wages under the statute.
Gauge Nº 22 · The neighborhood
Oregon against its neighbors
Washington pays more per week and keys the check to your best quarters. Oregon pays for the whole year.
Idaho and Nevada run their own formulas, each with a dedicated calculator on this site.
| State | Weekly maximum | How the rate is set |
|---|---|---|
| Oregon | $902 | 1.25% of total base-year wages, bracketed $211–$902 |
| Washington | $1,208 | Average of the two highest quarters (2026–27 schedule) |
| Most states | varies | Key the check to peak quarters, not the annual total |
The whole-year design pays off for steady earners. Quarterly spikers often do better next door.
One more wrinkle: Oregon taxes the check, and so does Washington. California also taxes; Idaho does too.
Gauge Nº 23 · Quick answers
Oregon unemployment FAQ
What is the most unemployment I can get in Oregon right now?+
The 2026 ceiling is $902 a week. Small wage histories get lifted to a $211 floor instead.
How is the Oregon weekly benefit calculated?+
Multiply total base-year wages by 1.25%, then round down. A $56,000 year pays $700 a week. No single quarter sets the rate.
How long does an Oregon claim run?+
Twenty-six weeks for most claimants. Only the $211 floor shortens the draw, and that hits small years only.
What happens during the waiting week?+
You claim it, serve it, and collect nothing. It runs once per benefit year, ahead of every paid week.
Can I work part-time and still be paid?+
Yes. Wages inside the shield — the greater of $155.50 or a third of the check — leave the payment untouched.
What if my strongest quarter dwarfs the rest?+
The 1.5× wage gate probably fails. Five hundred covered hours, or the alternate base year, becomes your route in.
How many work searches does Oregon demand each week?+
Five activities, two of them direct employer contacts. Keep a dated log because the department audits it.
Does Oregon hold taxes out of my check?+
Only if you elect them: 10% federal, 6% Oregon state, or both, set inside Frances Online.
How do I appeal a denial?+
Twenty days from the notice date. File inside Frances Online or call 503-947-3149 to record one.
When do Oregon’s brackets move again?+
Every summer, riding the state average wage. Your own brackets freeze at filing and hold for the benefit year.
What does my employer pay into the system?+
Taxes on the first $56,700 of each worker’s 2026 wages. Rates run from 0.9% to 5.4% by experience.
What if a disaster took my job?+
Federally declared disasters unlock Disaster Unemployment Assistance. It covers workers who miss the regular gates.
Gauge Nº 24 · Sources
Sources & verification
Every number on this page was checked against primary sources in September 2026. Statutes beat summaries here.
- 1OED — Minimum and Maximum Weekly Benefit Amounts, June 2026 notice (PDF)
- 2OED — Unemployment glossary: $211 minimum and $902 maximum as of June 28, 2026
- 3Oregon Revised Statutes — ORS 657.150: formula, gates, pot, and partial rules
- 4Oregon Revised Statutes — ORS 657.155: the waiting week
- 5OED FAQ — waiting-week language, work search, Special Programs Center
- 6Frances Online — claimant portal for filings and weekly certifications
- 7OED Appeals — the 20-day clock and Employment Appeals Board contact
- 8OED 1099-G — taxation and the 10% federal / 6% state elections
- 9BOLI — 2026 minimum wage schedule: $15.55 / $16.80 / $14.55
- 10BLS — Oregon Economy at a Glance: 5.2% rate, July 2026 data
- 11KATU News — OED reform plan and call-answer dashboard, March 2026
- 12IRS Topic 418 — unemployment compensation taxed federally
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Oregon’s neighboring calculators
Every bordering state’s gauge lives on its own page, with the fifty-state index one click beyond.