The unemployment insurance tax you pay depends on the size of your taxable payroll and the rate of your tax. The taxable wage base, or the amount of "wages" for each covered employee on which unemployment insurance assessments must be paid, is determined by the Delaware legislature in accordance with a federally determined minimum. The taxable wage base is currently $8,500.00.

"Wages" is defined as all remuneration for personal services including commissions, bonuses (excluding any attendance bonus paid during or incident to any period of unemployment), dismissal payments, holiday pay, and the cash value of all remuneration in any medium other than cash.

New employers, except those in Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) categories 15, 16, and 17 are taxed at the average employer assessment rate of all Delaware employers.

The average employer assessment rate is determined by multiplying the total taxable wages paid by each employer, regardless of industrial classification category, during the 12 consecutive months ending on June 30 by the employers' assessment rate established for the next calendar year and dividing the aggregate product for all employers by the total of taxable wages paid by all employers during the 12 consecutive months ending June 30.

New employers in SIC categories 15, 16, and 17 (construction industry) are taxed at the average industry assessment rate in that employer's particular SIC category or the average construction assessment rate of SIC categories 15, 16, and 17, whichever is the greater.

No employer's rate can be less than the assigned new employer rate for any calendar year until there has been employment in each of the two consecutive experience years (an experience year is the four consecutive calendar quarters beginning on July 1 of any year and ending on June 30 of the following year) immediately preceding the computation date of the employer's assessment rate for that year.