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 Massachusetts, 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 March 15, 2024, your base period will be from October 1, 2022 through September 30, 2023. It would not include the most recent complete calendar quarter before you filed (October 1, 2023 through December 31, 2023) or the first two-and-a-half months of 2024.
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. In Massachusetts, the alternate base period is the last three complete calendar quarters before you file for unemployment, plus any portion of the quarter in which you file. For example, if you file for benefits on December 8, your alternate base period would be the first three calendar quarters of the year, plus October 1 through December 7 of the quarter in which you file for benefits.
Massachusetts allows filers to use an alternate base period even if they would be eligible for benefits using the regular base period, if they can show that their benefit would be at least 10% higher using the alternate base period.
If you received workers' compensation payments for a temporary total disability for more than seven weeks during the base period, you may be entitled to use an extended base period if your earnings are insufficient during the regular base period to qualify for benefits. The Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance will look to your earlier earnings and may substitute weeks of work from before the regular base period began for weeks in the base period during which you were receiving workers' compensation benefits, up to 52 weeks.