WHAT IS A BASE PERIOD?
The Base Period for Alaska is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters prior to the quarter in which a claim for benefits is filed. For example, a claim established in May would have a Base Period of January through December of the previous year. Wages earned during the base period determine both the amount and duration of an individual’s unemployment insurance benefits. The table below shows how the base period is determined.
A base period or reference period is a specific period of time which is used in the comparison of financial data. Typically, the base period used will be disclosed in studies of this data, so that people who read these studies have a frame of reference. The time span of a base period varies widely; it may represent an average of years, for example, or it may be a period of only a few months. Since comparison is an important measure of economic growth and health, base periods are used extensively in things like annual reports. The idea of a base period is that it acts as a benchmark for a frame of reference. For example, a company might issue an annual report comparing its current income to its income in the base year 1995. In the annual report, the company would discuss reasons for changes in growth, it would presumably talk about predictions for the future, and a discussion of ways to promote growth would also be included. Economic analysts also use base periods to look at fluctuation
A base period is made up of four quarters or one full year of wages paid by every employer in that year. Let us imagine that we are establishing a base period today. First, consider that you are in a wage reporting quarter right now. You obviously have not reported your wages for this quarter, so the wages cannot be part of the base period. Second, the wage report that you submitted for the last quarter may not be processed and in the system yet, so that quarter is not considered as part of the base period either. Therefore, the base period begins with the quarter before that and continues backward for four quarters or one year. Example: 2002-2 = current quarter = does not count 2002-1 = quarter last reported by you = does not count 2001-4 = in base period 2001-3 = in base period 2001-2 = in base period 2001-1 = in base period The day a claim is filed, a base period is established and remains in effect until one year passes and the claim period expires. If a new claim is filed, previou
