Florida's weekly benefit amount and maximum duration, in full

Florida Statutes §443.111 sets the weekly benefit amount as one twenty-sixth of the wages paid in your highest-earning base-period quarter, rounded down to the nearest whole dollar, with a floor of $32 and a ceiling of $275 — regardless of how high your actual wages were. That ceiling was last set by the Legislature and has not moved with inflation; it is the same $275 figure whether your highest quarter was $7,200 or $70,000.

Note what this means in practice: any highest quarter at or above $7,150 produces the same $275 weekly amount as one twice that size. The formula only differentiates wages between roughly $832 (below which the $32 floor takes over) and $7,150.

Your weekly amount is only one limit. The total Florida will pay across your whole claim is the lesser of two numbers: 25% of your total base-period wages, or your weekly benefit amount multiplied by your maximum number of weeks (see the duration table below) — and by statute that 25% figure is itself capped at $6,325 regardless of how high your wages were. Whichever of those two limits you hit first ends the claim, even if the other limit hasn't been reached yet.

This is the part of the formula that doesn't appear on a typical benefits summary. Florida Statutes §443.111(4)(b) doesn't just zero out your benefit the moment you earn anything — it disregards a slice of your earnings first. Specifically: your partial-week benefit equals your weekly benefit amount, minus whatever part of that week's earned income exceeds 8 times the federal hourly minimum wage. At the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour, that disregard is 8 × $7.25 = $58.

Results are rounded down to the nearest dollar. You must still report every dollar earned for the week you're requesting payment for, even if it's below the disregard and doesn't reduce your check — under-reporting earnings is treated as the kind of misrepresentation that can trigger the fraud-overpayment penalty described on the work search & appeals page.

Florida's maximum number of payable weeks is not fixed at 12 — it moves with what the statute calls the "Florida average unemployment rate": the average of the three monthly, seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment rates for the third calendar quarter (July–September) of the year before the calendar year your claim falls in. In other words, the rate that sets everyone's maximum duration for claims filed in 2026 was fixed back in the third quarter of 2025 and does not change again mid-year, even if the current rate moves.

Florida's rate has stayed in the mid-4% range through 2026 (see the FRED source below), which is why 12 weeks — the statutory floor of the sliding scale — applies to claims filed this year. This is one of the shortest maximum durations of any state; most states pay 26 weeks. Nothing on this page argues that policy point one way or the other — it only documents what the statute currently does.

After you file, FloridaCommerce sends a monetary determination stating whether you qualify and, if so, your exact weekly benefit amount and maximum total. If you think it's wrong — a quarter's wages missing, an employer not counted — Florida law gives you 20 days from the mailing (or delivery) date to file a written request asking the department to reconsider it. Miss that window and the determination becomes final for you; a later monetary redetermination, if one is issued, carries its own fresh 20-day window to appeal.