Unemployment Benefit Calculator - HEALS Act vs. HEROES Act

How to use this historical unemployment benefit calculator

What this calculator does

This tool reconstructs a simplified 2020 comparison of unemployment payments under three federal policy paths: the enacted CARES Act supplement, the proposed HEALS Act framework, and the proposed HEROES Act extension. It estimates weekly and cumulative cash benefits by combining an estimated state unemployment payment with the federal supplement that would have applied in each week. It does not determine eligibility, adjudicate a claim, reproduce every state formula, or calculate current unemployment benefits. The policy dates and supplements are historical, and the underlying proposals did not all become law.

When to use it

Use the calculator to study how a flat federal supplement changes wage replacement, compare the cumulative value of competing 2020 proposals, build a classroom or policy-analysis example, or understand why the same supplement creates different replacement rates for workers with different prior earnings. For current claims, use your state workforce agency instead.

How to calculate

1. The calculator opens with a complete demonstration: a $60,000 annual salary, California, one dependent, a July 5, 2020 start date, 26 weeks, and a $450 custom-benefit backup. The first result and Excel workbook are ready immediately.
2. Replace Annual salary before unemployment with gross annual pay in U.S. dollars. Choose a State or territory; choose “Other / custom” only when you want to enter your own state estimate.
3. Enter the Number of dependents, the Benefit start date, and the Weeks to compare. The timeline updates live.
4. Read the HEALS estimate, comparison totals, post-October weekly amount, coverage percentage, bar chart, and weekly table. Select Download Excel for a current-state workbook.
5. Reset clears the demonstration and calculated content. Download Excel is disabled until a complete valid state is entered again.

Input guide

Annual salary before unemployment is required, accepts a plain U.S.-style decimal from 0 through 1,000,000, and is divided by 52 to estimate prior weekly wages. A realistic example is 60000. A higher salary raises the 70% HEALS target but does not change a state cap; avoid commas used as decimal separators. State or territory is required and selects a simplified 2020 replacement-rate and maximum-benefit rule for the listed states. Number of dependents is a required whole number from 0 to 10; the simplified model adds a small dependent allowance only in states configured for one. Benefit start date is required and must fall in 2020; the model treats it as the Sunday that starts the first benefit week. Weeks to compare is a required integer from 1 to 39. Custom state weekly benefit is required only for “Other / custom,” accepts 0 through 2,000 dollars, and directly replaces the simplified state estimate.

Output guide

Estimated HEALS total, CARES total, and HEROES total are cumulative estimates over the selected weeks. HEALS weekly after Oct. 5 is the state benefit plus the smaller of $500 or the amount needed to reach 70% of prior weekly wages. HEALS wage coverage is that late-period weekly amount divided by prior weekly wages; a value above 100% can occur only in weeks with flat supplements, while the post-October HEALS formula is capped near 70% in this model. The summary pills show Weekly wage, State benefit, and Modeled weeks. In the weekly timeline, Week ending is the Saturday for each modeled week; proposal columns show total weekly dollars, and HEALS coverage shows the replacement percentage. The chart repeats the three cumulative totals from the same model.

Worked example

With a $60,000 salary, prior weekly wages equal $60,000 ÷ 52 = $1,153.85. The simplified California state benefit is capped at $450. For HEALS weeks after October 5, 70% of prior weekly wages is $807.69, so the needed federal supplement is $807.69 – $450 = $357.69, below the $500 cap. The modeled HEALS weekly amount is therefore $807.69 and its replacement rate is 70.00%. Across the startup 26-week window, the calculator displays the $19,792.31 cumulative total shown above and exports the same typed values to the workbook.

Learn more

The U.S. Department of Labor explains how the federal-state unemployment insurance system is administered, while its archived guidance documents the 2020 Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program. For the legislative text and status of the HEROES Act, consult the official Congress.gov bill record.