How Much Does Workers’ Comp Pay? Weekly Benefit Rates in Every State

How the weekly check is calculated

The four benefit types, and what each one pays

Every state uses some version of these four categories. The labels differ a little from state to state; the logic does not.

What else the claim pays for, and what it costs you

The weekly check is the visible part. These are the other benefits and trade-offs written into every state system, roughly in the order they matter.

• Medical care, mileage and travel

  Every state requires the insurer to pay for reasonable and necessary treatment of the work injury, generally without the deductibles and copays of health insurance, and many reimburse mileage to appointments. In 14 of the 51 jurisdictions in our database the employer or insurer controls the initial choice of treating doctor, and that doctor’s opinions steer the rest of the claim.

• Vocational rehabilitation

  When you cannot return to your old job, retraining, job-placement help and sometimes tuition are available. Every jurisdiction in our database records a vocational rehabilitation benefit; whether it is mandatory, optional or insurer-controlled varies.

• Death benefits and burial allowance

  If a work injury is fatal, the surviving spouse and dependent children receive weekly benefits computed from the worker’s wage, and the insurer pays a burial allowance fixed by statute. Several states cap the total death benefit; others pay a spouse until remarriage or for life.

• The waiting period and the retroactive period

  No state pays wage benefits from day one. You must miss a set number of days first: three days in 23 jurisdictions in our database and seven in 22 others, with a handful at four or five. If the disability lasts past a second threshold, the retroactive period, the insurer pays the waiting days too; that threshold is most often 14 days but runs from 5 to 42.

• Second-injury funds

  Most states maintain a fund that reimburses the insurer when a prior impairment combines with a new injury to produce a worse disability. It keeps employers hiring workers with old injuries, and it weakens the insurer’s incentive to blame everything on the earlier condition. Our database records one in 43 of 51 jurisdictions.

• The exclusive remedy trade-off

  In exchange for benefits paid without proving fault, you generally cannot sue your employer for negligence, and comp never pays for pain and suffering. Every state in our database applies this rule. The exception that matters most is a claim against someone other than your employer, such as the driver who hit you, which can pay everything comp does not.

• Employer notice deadlines

  You must tell your employer about the injury within a deadline that is separate from, and much shorter than, the deadline to file a claim. Thirty days is the most common window in our database, but a few states allow under a week and several allow 60 to 90 days or longer. Written notice, dated, beats a hallway conversation.

Why the same wage pays differently across state lines

Three settings do most of the work. The fraction: two-thirds in most states, but 60 percent in three and 80 percent in four, per our database. The cap: the maximum weekly benefit recorded in our database on the review date runs from roughly $600 a week in Mississippi to more than $2,100 in Iowa, so a well-paid worker is fully covered at two-thirds in one state and capped far below that in another. The clock: waiting periods, retroactive periods and week limits all vary, so two identical injuries can produce checks that start on different days and stop after different numbers of weeks.

The math on an illustrative paycheck

Here is the whole calculation on placeholder numbers. Nothing below is a rate for any real state; the point is to show where the cap bites.

• Below the cap, the fraction is the whole story

  Two-thirds of the average weekly wage is the check, to the dollar, as long as that figure sits between the state minimum and maximum. For most hourly workers the calculation ends here.

• Above the cap, the fraction stops mattering

  Once two-thirds of your wage exceeds the state maximum, you receive the maximum and not a dollar more. The higher your pay above that line, the smaller the share comp replaces.

• Below the minimum, the floor applies

  Low-wage and part-time workers can receive the state minimum even when two-thirds of their wage is lower, though in many states the floor is limited to your actual wage.

Multiply the weekly check by the weeks you are off, with no federal income tax taken out (see the FAQ), and you have the wage side of the claim. Medical care is paid on top.

Before you rely on any number: five checks

1. 1

   Compute the average weekly wage yourself

   Pull pay stubs for the look-back period your state uses and do the division. Insurers get AWW wrong in both directions, and an error here propagates through every benefit.

2. 2

   Confirm which benefit you are in and when it started

   Temporary total, temporary partial or permanent; waiting period served or not; retroactive period reached or not. The start date fixes how many weeks are owed.

3. 3

   Check the cap for your injury date

   Maximum and minimum benefits are keyed to a rate year, and in most states the figure that applies is the one in force on the date of injury. Ask the agency which year’s cap governs your claim.

4. 4

   Look for offsets and reductions

   Light-duty wages reduce temporary partial benefits by design. Social Security disability, unemployment and, in some states, employer disability plans can also reduce or be reduced by comp. Ask before you assume the weekly figure is net.

5. 5

   Confirm your state’s current rate with the agency and run it in the state module

   State agencies publish each year’s maximum and minimum benefit. Compare that figure with the chart on this page, then pick your state in the module and run the calculator with your own wage and dates.