Virginia Unemployment Benefits Calculator

Virginia is the only state on this site that prices the week from a statutory table rather than a division. Add the gross wages of your two best base-period quarters, find that figure in the table’s Column A, and read Column B: $160 at $3,000.01, plus one dollar for every additional fifty dollars, to the $478 maximum that binds at $18,900.01. The arithmetic underneath is linear and predictable — the table just makes it official.

The July 2026 reform re-cut every line of the table. For claims effective July 5, 2026 or later, the minimum rose from $112 to $160 and the maximum from $430 to $478 — the largest single-year increase Virginia has passed in a decade, signed as SB 759. Claims filed before that date stay on the old table for their entire benefit year.

The two-quarter base rewards steady work the way Tennessee’s does, but more gently — and Virginia’s steps are coarse. Fifty extra dollars of two-quarter wages move the check exactly one dollar; a missed week of overtime rarely changes the line you land on.

The regular base period is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before the claim’s effective date — the standard window, keyed to the quarter in which the claim takes effect rather than the date of the layoff. A claim effective in March uses the first three quarters of last year plus the last quarter of the year before; the newest quarter never counts, because its wage reports are still arriving.

Virginia’s alternate base period is the four most recently completed quarters including the lag quarter — the one the regular window excludes. For workers whose newest wages are the strong ones, the alternate window can carry the claim over the $3,000 gate and onto a better table line. One restriction: the alternate period cannot be used when federal, military, or out-of-state wages are missing from the record.

The first week you meet all eligibility requirements is the waiting period week, and the VEC does not pay it — the Benefits Eligibility page states it plainly. You register, file the initial claim, and certify through the week like any other; only the deposit is held back. The week still counts toward the claim year and keeps the certification rhythm intact.

On a $459 weekly amount the quiet week defers $459 of an $11,475 pot. Because the effective date starts the waiting-week clock, filing promptly is the only lever — every day between separation and filing pushes the first real payment a day further out.

Every claimed week needs at least two job searches or employer contacts, made within the week being claimed — the VEC’s rights-and-responsibilities page sets the floor, and the log you keep is the proof. The contacts must be genuine and separable: two applications, two interviews, two hiring events — not two scrolls through a job board.

Registration on the Virginia Workforce Connection is part of eligibility, not an optional extra — the published résumé is what the agency checks when the claim enters review. The patrol runs through the waiting week and part-time weeks alike, and a thin log is the first thing an auditor pulls.

The Statement of Wages and Potential Entitlement is Virginia’s Monetary Determination — base-period wages by quarter, the table line it produces, and the weeks the same table assigns. Read it like a bill: every employer listed, every quarter dated. The separation decision arrives separately and answers a different question — whether the reason you left qualifies at all.

Then the rhythm: file weekly claims every week, including the unpaid waiting week, reporting two searches and every dollar earned. Payments typically begin two to three weeks from filing when nothing holds the claim — and in Virginia, something often does: employer response delays and identity holds are the two most common stalls, both resolvable through the self-service portal.

Three fact patterns account for most non-monetary denials. Discharge for misconduct — a deliberate violation of a reasonable, known policy — disqualifies; poor performance or a bad fit does not, and the employer carries the burden. Voluntary quit without good cause connected to the work fails unless the cause existed and was raised before the walkout. Refusing suitable work moves on a sliding scale — late-claim refusals are the riskiest.

Each denial carries the thirty-day appeal clock and is heard first by an Appeals Examiner who weighs documents over testimony. Keep the separation letter, the handbook, the write-ups — the paper trail is the case.

Unemployment benefits are fully taxable federal income — a 10 percent withholding election is available — and Virginia taxes them at its graduated rates, which top out at 5.75 percent. The 1099-G that arrives each January drives both returns; there is no state subtraction for unemployment.

On a $459 weekly amount with a 25-week duration, the pot runs near $11,475 — roughly $1,148 of federal tax if no withholding is elected, plus the state’s share at filing. Skipping the election is fine only if a tenth of each deposit is set aside manually; the spring alternative comes with penalties attached.