Austrian unemployment benefit 2026: your daily rate
How the AMS turns your stored contribution records into a daily rate, step by step, checked against the Chamber of Labour table.
If you last earned €3,000 gross a month, Austrian unemployment benefit (Arbeitslosengeld) in 2026 comes to about €47.73 a day, or €1,431.90 for 30 days. The AMS, Austria's public employment service, follows section 21 of the Unemployment Insurance Act (AlVG): it takes the last twelve monthly contribution bases stored before the one-year correction period, adds a flat sixth for holiday and Christmas pay, deducts the social insurance and wage tax of a single salaried employee, and pays 55 % of that notional net as the basic amount (Grundbetrag). Earnings count only up to the assessment ceiling of €6,825 a month, so the daily rate without dependants tops out at €81.80. Low earners get a top-up (Ergänzungsbetrag) towards €43.61 a day, limited to 60 % of net pay, or 80 % with family supplements of €0.97 per dependant. Our engine matches the 102 rows of the Chamber of Labour table to within 0.08 % on average.
Unemployment benefit per day
€45.09
about €1,353 a month (30 days) · 30 weeks
| Basis: gross + 1/6 for special payments | €3,266.67 |
|---|---|
| Notional net income per day | €81.99 |
| Basic amount 55% | €45.09 |
| Daily rate | €45.09 |
| Then emergency assistance (92%) | €41.48 |
| Emergency assistance from month 7 (cap) | €41.48 |
55% of notional net pay. Since 1 January 2026, a marginal side job while on benefit is no longer allowed as a rule.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Calculation method
What the calculator gives you
Enter your average monthly gross without special payments (the 13th and 14th salary), the number of dependants who qualify for a family supplement, your age and your insured years. You get the daily rate with each component, the amount for 30 days, the number of weeks you can claim and the daily rate of emergency assistance that may follow. Duration has its own page on how long benefit lasts, and the follow-on benefit is covered under Notstandshilfe (emergency assistance).
From gross pay to daily rate
- Assessment basis: regular gross plus one sixth for special payments. €3,000 becomes €3,500.00, capped at €6,825 (AMS reference values 2026).
- Notional net: the deductions of a single salaried employee are taken off, ignoring any allowance you would have to apply for. Times twelve, divided by 365: €86.78 a day.
- Basic amount: 55.0 % of that, rounded to the cent: €47.73.
- Add-ons: a top-up for low incomes and family supplements per dependant. At €3,000 with no dependants, the basic amount is the whole benefit.
This is the method set out in section 21(3) AlVG. The calculator shows every step separately, so you can check the AMS decision letter (Bescheid) line by line.
Daily rates 2026 by monthly gross
| Monthly gross | Basis incl. 1/6 | Daily rate | For 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| €1,500 | €1,750.00 | €29.16 | €874.80 |
| €2,000 | €2,333.33 | €37.43 | €1,122.90 |
| €2,500 | €2,916.67 | €43.61 | €1,308.30 |
| €3,000 | €3,500.00 | €47.73 | €1,431.90 |
| €4,000 | €4,666.67 | €60.26 | €1,807.80 |
| €5,000 | €5,833.33 | €71.90 | €2,157.00 |
| €6,000 | €6,825.00 | €81.80 | €2,454.00 |
From a regular gross of €5,850.00 the ceiling applies and extra salary no longer moves the rate.
A low earner with a family
At €2,000 gross, notional net is €62.38 a day and the basic amount €34.31. Because that sits below the reference rate, a top-up of €3.12 is added, up to 60.0 % of net: €37.43 a day. With two dependants the ceiling rises to 80.0 %, the top-up grows to €9.30 and €1.94 of family supplements are added, for €45.55 a day. The government portal oesterreich.gv.at summarises these rules in German.
How we checked the numbers
The Chamber of Labour in Lower Austria (AK, the statutory employee chamber) prints a reference table for claims made in March 2026 in its unemployment insurance guide. We recalculated all 102 rows: the average gap is 0.08 %, the largest 0.43 %, usually one to five cents a day.
| Monthly gross | AK table | Our calculator |
|---|---|---|
| €1,500 | €29.22 | €29.16 |
| €2,000 | €37.45 | €37.43 |
| €3,000 | €47.73 | €47.73 |
| €4,000 | €60.21 | €60.26 |
The small differences come from rounding in the wage tax on special payments. Only the AMS sets the binding amount; the method page explains our assumptions.
Months that count and months that do not
Calendar months in which illness, pregnancy or unemployment meant you did not receive full pay are left out, as are months with care leave, educational part-time pay, rehabilitation or reintegration pay. With fewer than twelve usable months but at least six, the AMS averages those. Records from the year before last or earlier are uprated with the ASVG revaluation factor. If you are 45 or older, a higher earlier basis is kept for later claims (section 21(8)). Planning to earn something on the side? Read the page on side income while unemployed first, because the rules became much stricter in January 2026.