South Carolina Unemployment Benefits Calculator

South Carolina keeps the cleanest division in the Southeast: find the single quarter of your base period with the highest gross wages, divide that quarter by 26, and the answer is your weekly benefit. Thirteen weeks in a quarter, two halves in a whole — the arithmetic is literally “half of what you averaged per week in your best stretch.” No averaging across quarters, no dependents allowance, no bonus for a strong final quarter. One number in, one number out.

The 2026 band brackets the result tightly. A best quarter of $1,092 earns exactly the $42 floor, because 1,092 ÷ 26 = 42. The $350 ceiling binds at a best quarter of $9,100 — everything above pays the same $350. Between the two the ladder runs linearly: $5,200 ÷ 26 = $200; $7,800 ÷ 26 = $300. The table below marks the rungs claimants actually ask about.

The cap moved most recently when lawmakers lifted it to $350 — a flat maximum that replaced the old wage-indexed $326 ceiling, the same figure DEW publishes today on its Weekly Benefit Amount page. Because the max is flat rather than indexed, a strong economy does not silently raise it; it takes legislation, which is worth remembering when you plan around the number.

The base period is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters — a one-year lookback that stops, deliberately, one quarter short of “now.” File in September 2026 and the window runs July 2025 through June 2026; the quarter you are standing in does not count, because employers have not finished reporting its wages.

That lag is the trap. A worker laid off in August 2026 after a strong spring finds the spring wages inside the window — but a worker whose earnings only began in May finds those newest weeks carved out entirely. When the standard window leaves a claim short, DEW can re-run the tests on an alternative base period: the most recent four completed quarters, no gap. The alternative window never helps the rate, but it can carry a marginal claim over the 1.5× wall when the newest quarter is the strong one.

Before any benefits are paid, one full week is served unpaid — DEW’s glossary spells it out, and the agency has kept the rule in force through every recent session. You still file the weekly claim for the waiting week, still certify that you were able, available and searching, and still meet the work-search log. The only thing that does not happen is the deposit.

On a $315 weekly amount the quiet week defers $315 of a $6,300 pot — the money is not lost to the claim’s total arithmetic, but it is gone from the calendar’s front end. Line up one week of expenses between the layoff and the first payment, and file immediately: the waiting-week clock starts with your effective date, and every day of delay pushes the first real check a day further out.

Every certified week needs two work searches, logged in SC Works Online Services — the state’s job bank where your résumé also lives. The searches must be genuine and separable: two different employers, two different applications, recorded with enough detail that an auditor could reconstruct them. Self-service job-board scrolling does not count; a submitted application, a scheduled interview, an attended job fair does.

The log is the first thing DEW pulls in an audit, and the penalty for a thin one is sharp: a missed or undocumented week is denied, and the overpayment is recovered from later weeks. The patrol never pauses — it runs through the waiting week, through part-time weeks, and through any appeal. Union hiring-hall members and certain short-hour workers follow their own reporting path, but everyone else files the log weekly.

Two documents do the heavy lifting. The Monetary Determination arrives first — the wage record DEW’s employers reported, quarter by quarter, with the weekly amount it produces. Read it like a bill: every employer listed, every quarter dated. An error there is easiest to fix early, while the claim is young. The separation decision arrives separately, sometimes weeks later, and it answers a different question — whether the reason you left qualifies at all.

Then the rhythm starts: file weekly, certify weekly, every week including the unpaid waiting week. Each certification asks the same battery — able to work, available for work, two searches recorded, earnings reported to the dollar. Miss a week and it is simply gone; there is no retroactive certification window in South Carolina.

Money aside, three fact patterns account for most denials. Discharge for misconduct — a deliberate violation of a reasonable, known policy — disqualifies. Simple poor performance or a bad fit is not misconduct; the burden sits with the employer to prove the violation. Voluntary quit without good cause attributable to the work — unsafe conditions, material wage cuts, documented harassment — fails unless that cause existed and was raised before walking out. Refusing suitable work uses a sliding scale: the longer the claim runs, the more offers count as suitable.

Each denial carries the same ten-day appeal clock as any other determination, and each is heard by an appeal tribunal that weighs documents harder than testimony. Keep the separation letter, the handbook, the write-ups — the paper trail is the case.

Unemployment benefits are fully taxable federal income, and South Carolina adds its own levy at the graduated rates that top out at 5.21 percent for 2026. There is no unemployment subtraction on the SC1040 — the 1099-G amount flows straight into both returns. During weekly certification you can elect 10 percent federal withholding; there is no separate state election, so the state bill arrives at filing time.

On a $236 average check, ten months of the maximum 20-week pot is roughly $4,720 — about $472 of federal tax if no withholding was elected, plus the state’s share. Set a quarter of each check aside if you skipped the withholding election; the alternative is a spring surprise with penalties attached.