California State Disability Insurance pays 70 to 90 percent of your regular wages when a non-work-related illness, injury, or pregnancy keeps you off the job. For claims starting in 2026, how much SDI pays in California ranges from a minimum of $50 to a maximum of $1,765 per week, with your exact amount set by what you earned during a specific 12-month lookback window.1Employment Development Department. Disability Insurance Benefit Payment Amounts
The Two Benefit Tiers: 70% or 90% of Wages
The Employment Development Department applies one of two replacement rates to your earnings. Lower-income workers receive roughly 90 percent of their wages. Higher earners receive closer to 70 percent. The crossover point sits around $62,000 to $65,000 in annual income.1Employment Development Department. Disability Insurance Benefit Payment Amounts
These rates were raised on January 1, 2025. Before that, most workers received about 60 to 70 percent. The current formula covers a noticeably larger share of lost income, especially for workers living paycheck to paycheck.
How the EDD Finds Your Wages: The Base Period
Your weekly benefit is built from a 12-month lookback window called the base period, split into four consecutive calendar quarters. These are the wages you earned roughly 5 to 18 months before your claim starts, and only earnings that had SDI taxes withheld count.1Employment Development Department. Disability Insurance Benefit Payment Amounts
Which quarters the EDD uses depends on when your disability begins. For claims starting in 2026:
- January through March: the 12 months ending the previous September 30.
- April through June: the 12 months ending the previous December 31.
- July through September: the 12 months ending the previous March 31.
- October through December: the 12 months ending the previous June 30.
Because the window shifts with your claim date, filing a few weeks earlier or later can sometimes pull in a higher-earning quarter. If you had a particularly strong earnings stretch, check whether adjusting your start date by a few days captures those wages. The EDD’s online calculator lets you test different scenarios.1Employment Development Department. Disability Insurance Benefit Payment Amounts
How Your Weekly Amount Is Calculated
The EDD finds the single quarter within your base period where you earned the most. That highest-quarter figure, not your annual salary, drives the math. The agency converts it into a weekly equivalent and applies the 70 or 90 percent rate for your bracket.1Employment Development Department. Disability Insurance Benefit Payment Amounts
Two rough examples:
- Highest-quarter earnings of $13,000, falling in the 90 percent tier: your weekly benefit lands around $900.
- Highest-quarter earnings of $25,000, falling in the 70 percent tier: your weekly benefit lands around $1,346.
These are estimates. The EDD applies a detailed statutory wage table to produce the exact figure, which arrives on a Notice of Computation (DE 429D) after your claim is processed. The notice spells out your weekly amount, your total maximum payout, and the base period wages used. If anything looks wrong, you have 30 days from the mailing date to notify the EDD.2Employment Development Department. Explanation of Notice of Computation DE 429DI
The Floor and the Ceiling
Two hard limits bracket every claim.
The minimum weekly benefit is $50. It applies when your highest-quarter wages fall between $75 and about $1,150. If you earned less than $75 in your highest quarter, you don’t qualify at all.3California Legislative Information. California Code UIC 2655
The maximum for claims beginning in 2026 is $1,765 per week. Even if your earnings formula points higher, the state won’t pay above the cap.4Employment Development Department. Paid Family Leave The ceiling is adjusted annually and tends to rise each year. It was $1,620 in 2024 and $1,681 in 2025.
You also need to clear a minimum earnings test to collect anything: at least $300 in wages subject to SDI deductions during your base period.5Employment Development Department. Disability Insurance Benefits That bar is low enough that most part-time workers clear it, but someone who recently moved to California or worked largely in cash may fall short.
The First Week Is Unpaid
SDI doesn’t start paying on day one. The first seven days of every new claim are a non-payable waiting period, and your first payable day is day eight.6Employment Development Department. Disability Insurance – Benefits and Payments FAQs Treat it like a one-week deductible. You can cover that gap with sick leave or vacation if your employer offers it, but the state will not pay for those seven days under any circumstances. If you know a medical leave is coming, plan for the shortfall.
How Long the Money Lasts
You can collect SDI for up to 52 weeks on a single claim. The total the state will pay, called the maximum benefit amount, is either 52 times your weekly benefit or the total wages in your base period, whichever is less. Payments stop once you hit either limit.6Employment Development Department. Disability Insurance – Benefits and Payments FAQs
If you go back to work part-time while still partially disabled, your claim can run longer than 52 calendar weeks because you’re drawing down the total dollar amount more slowly. The overall cap doesn’t change; only the timeline stretches. For disabilities expected to last beyond what SDI covers, the EDD points claimants to the Social Security Administration for long-term disability benefits.6Employment Development Department. Disability Insurance – Benefits and Payments FAQs
Pregnancy Claims and Paid Family Leave
If you’re on SDI for a pregnancy-related disability, you can transition straight into Paid Family Leave for newborn bonding. PFL provides up to eight weeks of partial wage replacement within a 12-month period, and the weekly calculation uses the same formula and the same caps as SDI.4Employment Development Department. Paid Family Leave For a typical delivery, that means roughly 6 to 8 weeks of disability benefits for recovery followed by 8 weeks of PFL for bonding, covering about 14 to 16 weeks of partial income replacement in total. Fathers, adoptive parents, and foster parents qualify for the PFL bonding weeks as well.
What You Pay Into the System
Every California employee funds SDI through a payroll deduction labeled “CASDI” on your pay stub. For 2026, the rate is 1.3 percent of all wages, with no cap on taxable earnings.7Employment Development Department. Contribution Rates, Withholding Schedules, and Meals and Lodging Values The wage ceiling that used to limit this tax was eliminated starting in 2024, so higher earners now pay SDI tax on every dollar. The same deduction funds both Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave.
Will You Be Taxed on the Benefits?
In most cases, no. California SDI benefits are exempt from state income tax entirely and are generally exempt from federal income tax as well.8Employment Development Department. Form 1099G FAQs You already paid tax on the wages that funded the program, so the benefits aren’t taxed again.
One exception trips people up. If you were collecting unemployment and then became disabled, your DI payments are treated as a substitute for unemployment compensation and are federally taxable. You’ll receive a Form 1099-G reporting the taxable amount, and the EDD notifies you with your first payment.8Employment Development Department. Form 1099G FAQs Paid Family Leave benefits, separately, are always reported on a 1099-G and are taxable federally.
SDI Is a Check, Not Job Protection
One thing SDI does not do: hold your job. It is purely a wage-replacement payment. Job protection comes from separate laws, including the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, California’s family rights law, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, each with its own eligibility rules.9U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #28: The Family and Medical Leave Act Whether your position is waiting when you return depends on those laws, not on your SDI claim.