The maximum unemployment benefit in Minnesota is $948 per week for 2026, up from $914 in 2025.1Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 268.07 – Benefit Amounts, Benefit Account, Duration, andடeductions That cap is the ceiling, not the going rate. What you actually receive depends on your earnings history, and most claimants land below it. The state resets the figure each year based on changes in the statewide average weekly wage.
How Your Weekly Amount Is Calculated
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) runs two calculations and pays you whichever is higher.2Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 268.07 – Benefit Amounts, Benefit Account, Duration, and Deductions The first takes your total base-period wages, divides by 52, and pays 50 percent of that average weekly wage, with a cap at 66⅔ percent of the state’s average weekly wage. The second looks only at your highest-earning quarter, divides those wages by 13, pays 50 percent, and caps the result at 43 percent of the state’s average weekly wage.
Your base period is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before you filed.3Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 268.035 – Definitions Only wages from covered employment count.4Unemployment Insurance Minnesota. Wages Used to Establish an Account If you were on workers’ compensation for a temporary disability during part of that stretch, you may qualify for an extended lookback that reaches further back into your work history.
In short: hitting the $948 maximum requires an average weekly wage high enough for 50 percent of it to meet the state’s cap. If you earned less, your check will be proportionally lower.
Maximum Total Payout Over a Full Claim
Regular benefits last up to 26 weeks, but the total you can collect is the lower of two numbers: 26 times your weekly benefit amount, or 33⅓ percent of your total base-period wages.2Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 268.07 – Benefit Amounts, Benefit Account, Duration, and Deductions The one-third rule is the piece people miss. A worker with uneven earnings can run out of money long before week 26.
At the 2026 cap of $948, a full 26 weeks works out to $24,648. To actually reach that number, your base-period wages need to be at least about $73,944, because one-third of that amount equals $24,648. Below that wage floor, the one-third formula cuts your lifetime claim short even if you’re still unemployed.
What Shrinks Your Weekly Check
Before any payments start, Minnesota requires a one-week nonpayable waiting period. You still have to file for the week and meet eligibility, but no money comes for it.5Unemployment Insurance Minnesota. After You Apply So the practical maximum over a claim is 26 paid weeks on top of that unpaid first week.
Part-time earnings during your claim reduce the check. If you work 32 or more hours in a week, or your gross earnings for the week equal or exceed your weekly benefit amount, you receive nothing for that week.6Unemployment Insurance Minnesota. How Working Affects Benefits Below those thresholds, DEED automatically reduces your payment based on what you report. Failing to report earnings, even a few hours of freelance work, counts as misrepresentation and triggers repayment plus a 40 percent penalty.7Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 268.18 – Overpayment of Unemployment Benefits
Taxes Take Another Cut
Unemployment benefits are taxable on both your federal and Minnesota state returns.8Unemployment Insurance Minnesota. Year-End Tax Information DEED sends a 1099-G in early the following year showing total benefits paid and any tax withheld.
You can elect to have federal income tax withheld from each weekly payment at a flat 10 percent. No other rate is offered; it’s 10 percent or nothing.9U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration. Income Tax Withholding from Unemployment Compensation Minnesota state withholding is also optional. If you skip both, set money aside yourself. At the $948 maximum, a full 26 weeks produces nearly $25,000 of taxable income, which is enough to push some filers into a higher bracket or affect credits that phase out with income.
So the headline $948 is a gross weekly cap for the highest-earning claimants. After the unpaid waiting week, any part-time earnings, the one-third-of-wages limit, and taxes, the amount reaching your account over a full claim is usually smaller than a simple 26-times-$948 projection suggests.