Unemployment benefits are payments made by the state to people who are temporarily out of work through no fault of their own. They are intended to partially replace your lost wages while you look for a new job.

These benefits are provided through an insurance program run jointly by the federal government and California. Taxes paid by employers in California fund the program and employers may not deduct these taxes from employee wages. If an employer asks you to agree to have the unemployment insurance tax deducted from your wages, you can refuse. Such an agreement is not enforceable.

More information about unemployment benefits in California can be found on the website of the California Employment Development Department. 

You qualify for unemployment benefits if you:

• lost your job through no fault of your own
• worked during the "base period" required by California unemployment law before you lost your job
• earned enough in the base period to qualify for benefits, and
• worked for an employer required to pay into the California Unemployment Trust Fund (most employer's have to pay into the fund with only a few exceptions). 

You may qualify for unemployment benefits even if you quit your last job, as long as you quit for a reason that is recognized as good cause to quit by the California Employment Development Department. 

For more information about eligibilty requirements, see Who is Eligible for Unemployment Benefits  in California?

The base period is the length of time used both to determine your eligibility for unemployment benefits and to calculate the amount you will receive. 

In California, the base period is the first four of the five complete calendar quarters immediately before you filed for benefits. For example, if you file for benefits on July 10, 2015, your base period will be from April 1, 2014 through March 31, 2015. It would not include the most recent complete calendar quarter before you filed (April 1, 2015 through June 30, 2015) or the first ten days of July 2015.

If you did not earn enough to qualify for benefits during the regular base period, you may be able to use an alternate base period that counts more recent earnings. California's alternate base period is the last four complete calendar quarters before you file for unemployment. 

Each state has its own formula for determining your weekly benefit amount: how much money you will receive each week as your unemployment benefit. Typically, your weekly benefit amount is some percentage of your earnings during the entire base period or the quarter of the base period in which you were paid the most. 

Generally, your weekly benefit in California will be one twenty-sixth of your earnings in the highest paid quarter of the base period. If your earnings are lower, however, this might vary. You can look up how much you will receive in the Unemployment Insurance Benefit Table. 

In California, you can receive unemployment benefits for a maximum of 26 weeks.

In times of high unemployment, the extended benefits program pays for 13 to 20 additional weeks of benefits. However, the unemployment rate is not currently high enough in any state for this program to kick in. 

You can apply for unemployment benefits in California a couple of ways:

• online by going to the California unemployment insurance agency website, or
• by telephone if you call the California Employment Development Department at 800-300-5616 .

You can find information about how to file your initial claim for benefits and how to file your weekly claim for continuing benefits on the California Employment Development Department website, too. Get more information in our article, How Do I Apply for Unemployment Benefits in California?

Whether you file for unemployment online, in person, or by phone, use this checklist to make sure you have all of the information and documents you'll need:

• basic personal information, including your name, address, phone number, and Social Security number
• information on all employers you have worked for in the last year and a half, including the company's name, address, and phone number; the start and end dates of your employment; and your earnings
• the last date you worked for your previous employer
• the reason why you are no longer working for your previous employer
• information on payments you are receiving or expect to receive from your previous employer, such as severance pay, and
• if you are not a United States Citizen, your alien registration number.

You can find out whether you'll need additional documents or information by contacting the California Employment Development Department.

Here at Legal Consumer, we want to help people find answers to everyday legal questions about important topics like bankruptcy, Obamacare, inheritance, and more. 

Now, we’ve turned our attention to employment law. Because, while almost everyone has (or has had) a job, it can be surprisingly tough to get good, high-quality local information about workplace rights. 

We'll be adding new topics over time, but we’ve started with unemployment benefits. If you’ve recently lost your job, unemployment benefits can be a real lifesaver. They replace some of your income, temporarily, while you look for a new job. But not everyone qualifies for benefits, and the amount and duration of benefits can vary a lot from state to state. 

On this website, when you choose your state or enter your zip code, you will quickly learn:

• who is eligible for unemployment benefits
• how to apply for unemployment in your state
• how much you can expect to receive each week
• what to do if your claim for benefits is denied
• and more.

We want to make it as easy as possible for you to get the information, forms, and resources you need to get the unemployment benefits you’re entitled to and move on with your job search. 

In order to collect unemployment, you must meet two basic requirements. First, you must have earned at least a minimum amount, set by state law, in the time before you lost your job. Second, you must be out of work through no fault of your own. For more information about these requirements, see Who is Eligible for Unemployment Benefits in California?

If you lose your job in a layoff, reduction-in-force (RIF), or downsizing, you will be eligible for unemployment insurance benefits. But, these are not the only ways that employees lose their jobs. Your eligibility for benefits depends upon the reason you become unemployed. 

If You Were Fired for Misconduct

Generally-speaking, if you are terminated, you can collect unemployment insurance benefits in California. But, there is an exception to that general rule in California:

You may be disqualified from receiving benefits if you were fired for job-related misconduct. California defines misconduct narrowly. All four of the following statements must be true for the Employment Development Department to conclude that you were fired for misconduct:

• You must owe a material duty to your employer. 
• You must have committed a substantial breach of that duty. 
• Your breach must show a wilful or wanton disregard of that duty. 
• Your breach must disregard the employer's interests and injure or tend to injure the employer's interests.

For example, it is not enough for an employer to state that you were fired for being absent. The Employment Development Department will consider whether you had permission to be absent, whether you had a compelling reason to be absent, and whether you had received prior warnings or reprimands. 

Each state defines misconduct. Check California's definition of misconduct to see if the reason given for your termination may disqualify you from receiving unemployment insurance benefits. If you were fired for a reason that does not fall within that definition, you may be eligible to collect unemployment insurance benefits in California.

You may be disqualified either for a set number of weeks or until you get another job and earn a minimum amount, depending on state law. In some states, the length of the disqualification period depends on why you were fired. Contact the California Employment Development Department for more information.

 If You Were Wrongfully Terminated

Sometimes employers fire employees for reasons that are illegal, such as an employee’s refusal to submit to sexual harassment. If you were fired for reasons other than misconduct, you may have been wrongfully terminated.

The definition of “wrongful termination” varies from state to state. If your employer fired you for no reason or for a reason that violates the law in California, you may be eligible for unemployment insurance benefits in California. If your employer fired you for a reason that you believe violates California law, or if you believe your employer fired you for a reason other than the reason it has given, you may want to speak to an employment lawyer. See Do I Need a Lawyer to Get Unemployment Benefits in California? for information on finding a lawyer.

If you believe you were fired because you complained about your employer's violation of wage and hour laws (like the laws entitling employees to overtime, the minimum wage, tips, breaks, and so on), visit our site on minimum wage and overtime law, which includes information on your rights to fair pay and how to find a lawyer if you think your employer owes you wages.  

If you were denied unemployment benefits and you believe you were wrongfully terminated, you may want to appeal the denial by the California Employment Development Department. See Can I Appeal a Denial of Unemployment Benefits in California? for information on filing an appeal.