Pennsylvania SUI tax is the state unemployment insurance contribution Pennsylvania employers owe on the first $10,000 of wages paid to each employee per calendar year. For 2026, total employer rates run from 1.419% to 10.3734% depending on claims history, with new employers paying 3.822% (non-construction) or 10.5924% (construction). Employees also contribute 0.07% of gross wages with no wage cap. Reports and payments are filed quarterly through the Unemployment Compensation Management System (UCMS), due by the last day of the month following each quarter.
Register Within 30 Days of Paying Wages
Every Pennsylvania business with one or more employees must register with the Department of Labor & Industry’s Office of UC Tax Services within 30 days of first paying wages for covered work. Miss that window and a 3% “Increase for UC Delinquency” is added to your assigned tax rate and stays on the account until the delinquency is resolved.1Department of Labor and Industry. UC Tax Payment
Registration is done through the PA-100 (Pennsylvania Enterprise Registration Form) on the myPATH portal. The PA-100 covers multiple state tax accounts at once. Once approved, the Department issues a seven-digit Employer Account Number (EAN) used for every quarterly filing, payment, and piece of correspondence after that.2Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry. Instructions for Completing PA UC Quarterly Tax Reports
How Your Contribution Rate Is Built
Your total rate is a basic contribution rate plus a 9.2% solvency surcharge (applied to the basic rate, not to wages) plus, for established employers, a 0.60% additional contributions tax. Whether the basic rate is a flat starter figure or an experience-rated number depends on how long you’ve been on the books.
New Employer Rates for 2026
If you’re newly liable and not a successor to an existing business, Pennsylvania assigns a flat basic rate for the first two to three calendar years: 3.5% for non-construction employers and 9.7% for construction employers. The 0.60% additional contributions tax does not apply to newly liable employers. After adding the 9.2% surcharge, 2026 totals come out to:3Department of Labor and Industry. Yearly Tax Highlights
- Non-construction: 3.822% (basic 3.5% plus surcharge of 0.322%)
- Construction: 10.5924% (basic 9.7% plus surcharge of 0.8924%)
Experience-Rated Employers
After the initial period, your rate is tied to your reserve account balance, which tracks contributions paid minus benefits charged against your account. A positive or zero balance gets you toward the low end of the scale; a negative balance from heavy claims history pushes you higher. For 2026, experience-based totals (including the 9.2% surcharge and 0.60% additional contributions tax) range from 1.419% to 10.3734%.3Department of Labor and Industry. Yearly Tax Highlights
Voluntary Contributions to Lower a Rate
If your rating puts you in a higher bracket than you’d like, you can make a voluntary contribution to boost your reserve balance and drop into a lower bracket. For 2026, the deadline is January 30, 2026. The general rule: the payment must be received within 30 days of the mailing date of your Contribution Rate Notice, or no later than 120 days after the beginning of the rate year, whichever comes first.4Department of Labor and Industry. UC Tax Rates
Calculating What You Owe
Multiply your total contribution rate by the taxable wages paid to each employee that quarter. Taxable wages are capped at $10,000 per employee per calendar year. Once an employee’s year-to-date wages hit that ceiling, you stop owing employer contributions on that person’s pay for the rest of the year.3Department of Labor and Industry. Yearly Tax Highlights
A worked example. You’re an established non-construction employer with a basic rate of 2.15%. Your total rate is:
- Basic rate: 2.15%
- Solvency surcharge: 2.15% × 9.2% = 0.1978%
- Additional contributions tax: 0.60%
- Total: 2.9478%
Pay one employee $12,000 in Q1 and only $10,000 is taxable, so your employer contribution is $10,000 × 0.029478 = $294.78. Pay that same employee another $12,000 in Q2 and none of it is taxable, because the $10,000 annual cap was reached in Q1.3Department of Labor and Industry. Yearly Tax Highlights
Employee Withholding: 0.07% With No Cap
Pennsylvania is one of only three states that require employees to contribute to the unemployment fund. For 2026, the employee rate is 0.07% of gross wages, or 70 cents per $1,000. Unlike the employer contribution, there is no wage cap. You withhold on total gross wages all year.3Department of Labor and Industry. Yearly Tax Highlights
Using the same employee: withholding in Q1 is $12,000 × 0.0007 = $8.40. In Q2, when employer contributions stop because of the wage cap, you still withhold 0.07% on the employee’s full $12,000.
Filing Quarterly Reports
Every liable employer files quarterly wage and tax reports with the Office of UC Tax Services. Reports are due the last day of the month after the quarter ends:5Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. File Unemployment Compensation Quarterly Wage/Tax Reports
- Q1 (January–March): April 30
- Q2 (April–June): July 31
- Q3 (July–September): October 31
- Q4 (October–December): January 31
When a due date lands on a weekend or legal holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.5Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. File Unemployment Compensation Quarterly Wage/Tax Reports
The filing has two pieces. Form UC-2 is the summary: total gross wages, total taxable wages, and total contributions due. Form UC-2A is the employee-level detail: each worker’s Social Security number, name, and gross wages for the quarter. Both go through UCMS.
Employers with 100 or fewer employees can key wage detail directly into the portal. Employers with more than 100 employees must upload the data electronically by file upload or file transfer protocol. Not complying with the electronic filing requirement carries a penalty of 15% of total contributions due, with a minimum of $125 and a maximum of $450. The Department can grant a waiver if you request one and show you cannot comply.
Paying: Electronic Threshold at $5,000
Payments follow the same quarterly deadlines. Employer contributions and employee withholding are remitted together as a single payment through UCMS.
Once your total liability for contributions, interest, and penalties in any quarter reaches $5,000, you must pay electronically from that point forward — not only for that quarter but for every quarter after. Failing to pay electronically when required triggers a penalty of the greater of $25 or 10% of the amount, up to $500 per occurrence. The Department may waive this for good cause.6Department of Labor and Industry. Calculating Contributions, Penalties and Interest
Penalties and Interest
Pennsylvania stacks several penalties, and interest accrues on top of all of them.
Late filing. A quarterly report submitted after the due date draws a penalty of 15% of contributions owed for the quarter, minimum $125, maximum $450. Filing the report on time even if you can’t pay in full avoids this penalty entirely.6Department of Labor and Industry. Calculating Contributions, Penalties and Interest
Late payment interest. Unpaid contributions accrue interest at 1% per month (12% annually) from the due date until paid in full. Both the employer and employee portions are subject to interest.6Department of Labor and Industry. Calculating Contributions, Penalties and Interest
Dishonored payments. A bounced check or failed electronic transfer draws a penalty of 10% of the payment amount, minimum $25, maximum $1,000.6Department of Labor and Industry. Calculating Contributions, Penalties and Interest
Registration delinquency. Failing to register within 30 days adds 3% to your basic rate until resolved.1Department of Labor and Industry. UC Tax Payment
Nonprofits and Government: The Reimbursable Option
Political subdivisions and employers with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status can elect to become “reimbursable” employers rather than paying a percentage-based contribution rate. Under this method, you reimburse the UC Fund dollar-for-dollar for benefits actually charged against your account, billed either quarterly or monthly. Nonprofit 501(c)(3) employers reimburse for all regular benefits plus half of any extended benefits; political subdivisions reimburse for all regular benefits and the full amount of extended benefits.7Department of Labor and Industry. Reimbursable Employers The method can be cheaper for organizations with rare claims and costlier for those hit by a wave of layoffs.
Buying an Existing Business
A successor employer can apply to transfer all or part of the predecessor’s experience record and reserve account balance. The Department evaluates whether your anticipated employment risk has a direct relationship to the predecessor’s, looking at the nature of the business, the number of employees, and wages paid. Inheriting a positive reserve balance can put you at a lower rate than the standard new employer figure; inheriting a heavy claims history does the opposite. Ask for the seller’s UC account history before closing so the rate impact is priced into the deal.
How FUTA Fits Alongside
Most employers also owe federal unemployment tax under FUTA. The federal rate is 6.0% on the first $7,000 of wages per employee, but paying state SUI on time earns a credit of up to 5.4%, dropping the effective FUTA rate to 0.6% — about $42 per employee per year.8Internal Revenue Service. FUTA Credit Reduction FUTA is reported and paid annually on IRS Form 940, due January 31 of the following year. You must file Form 940 if you paid $1,500 or more in wages in any calendar quarter, or had at least one employee for some part of a day in 20 or more different weeks during the year.9Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 940 Pennsylvania is not currently subject to a FUTA credit reduction.