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Impairment Rating Payout Chart: How a PPD Rating Turns Into a Dollar Award
An impairment rating is a percentage, and the permanent partial disability award built on it is arithmetic: your compensation rate, times the weeks your state assigns, times the rating. No chart converts a rating straight into dollars, because two of the three inputs change at the state line. This guide explains the rating, the formula, and where a few percentage points move the award most.
Quick answer
An impairment rating is a doctor’s percentage estimate of permanent function loss, assigned at maximum medical improvement under the impairment guide your state has adopted. In most states the permanent partial disability award equals your weekly compensation rate, multiplied by the weeks the state assigns to the injured body part or to the whole person, multiplied by the rating. A 10 percent rating therefore pays twice what a 5 percent rating pays on the same schedule, and the same rating pays different amounts across state lines because rate caps and week schedules differ.
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By the CaseValue.law Editorial Team·Last updated and source-checked August 29, 2026·How we estimate
What an impairment rating is, and who assigns it
The impairment rating multiplies everything in a permanent partial award, which is why a few points matter.
An impairment rating measures what an injury permanently took away, expressed as a percentage of a body part or of the whole person. It is a medical number: a physician assigns it after measuring range of motion, strength, sensation and stability and comparing the findings with standardized tables. Impairment is not disability. The rating says how much function is gone; disability is what that loss does to your ability to earn, and most states let the rating stand in for disability in the permanent partial formula.
The rating cannot be assigned until you reach maximum medical improvement, the point at which the treating doctor certifies that the condition has improved as much as it is expected to improve. Texas defines MMI in those words and pays impairment income benefits only from the day after it is reached; most states follow the same sequence under different labels. Who rates you varies: the treating physician in many states, a state-designated examiner in others, and an insurer-selected independent medical examiner when the two sides disagree.
Most states rate under an edition of the American Medical Association’s Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, but not the same edition. In our state database, 25 jurisdictions use the Fifth Edition, ten use the Sixth, seven still use the Fourth, and Colorado uses the Third; California, Florida, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Washington and Wisconsin use their own guides or schedules instead. The tables, methods and resulting percentages differ from one edition to the next, so the first fact to establish about your rating is which book, and which edition, it came from.
The PPD formula: rate times weeks times rating
Here is the calculation most states use for a permanent partial award, run at three ratings on placeholder numbers. The rate and the week pool are invented for the example; your state’s are in the module on this page.
The compensation rate
The weekly figure your temporary benefits were paid at, or a separate permanent partial rate where the state sets one: a fraction of your average weekly wage, usually two-thirds, capped by the state maximum. Texas, for one, pays impairment income benefits at 70 percent of the average weekly wage.
The weeks
A number fixed by statute. For scheduled body parts (arms, hands, legs, feet, eyes, hearing) the schedule lists the weeks for total loss of that part. For whole-person injuries such as the spine, the state sets a single pool; among the states in our database that cap it, the pool runs from 260 to 1,000 weeks.
The rating
The percentage from the section above. Multiply the weeks by the rating to get the weeks payable, then multiply by the rate. Because the rating multiplies everything, one point is worth one percent of the entire schedule.
Where the formula bends
Some states pay a fixed number of weeks per rating point rather than a percentage of a pool; Texas is one. Some pay weekly, others in a lump sum, and a few award unscheduled permanent partial benefits on lost earning capacity rather than the rating alone.
Illustrative example, not a prediction
Weekly compensation rate (placeholder)
$600
Weeks assigned to the body part (placeholder schedule)
200 weeks
5% rating: 10 weeks payable
$6,000
10% rating: 20 weeks payable
$12,000
25% rating: 50 weeks payable
$30,000
Value of a single rating point in this example
$1,200 (2 weeks x $600)
Lower the rate to a smaller state cap or shrink the pool and every line falls in proportion. Each added point adds the same fixed amount, $1,200 in this illustrative example, whether the rating is 5 or 50, which is why ratings, not formulas, are where the disputes happen.
Ratings are medical findings, not verdicts, but patterns recur. These descriptions are general; the tables in your state’s adopted guide, and the doctor applying them, control.
5 percent whole person
Typically a documented injury that healed with a modest, measurable residual: a soft-tissue spine injury with ongoing symptoms and no surgery, a joint with a small range-of-motion deficit, a fracture healed with minor alignment loss. Work restrictions, if any, are light.
10 percent whole person
Commonly a confirmed structural finding with lasting effect: a disc herniation with radiating symptoms treated without fusion, a joint repaired arthroscopically with persistent motion loss, a healed fracture with hardware. Permanent lifting or repetition restrictions are frequent.
15 percent whole person
Often surgery plus residual deficit: a single-level spinal fusion with continuing symptoms, a major joint reconstruction that did not restore full motion, nerve injury with measurable weakness. In a few states a rating at or above a set threshold unlocks additional benefits, so the exact number can matter twice.
25 percent whole person
Serious, multi-level or multi-part loss: multi-level fusion, a joint replacement with limited function in a working-age person, significant loss of use of a hand or arm, combined injuries to several body parts. Permanent restrictions usually rule out the pre-injury occupation.
50 percent and above
Catastrophic loss: amputation of a major limb, paralysis, severe brain injury, loss of vision. At this level the bigger question is often whether the injury qualifies as permanent total disability, which pays on a different basis and can run for life.
Scheduled ratings, whole-person ratings and combined values
Scheduled member ratings
Injuries to extremities, eyes and hearing are rated as a percentage of that body part, and the statute assigns each part a fixed number of weeks. A 10 percent rating to the arm pays 10 percent of the arm’s weeks. The schedule is mechanical, so these awards are predictable within a state and the argument centers on the percentage.
Whole-person ratings
Spine, head, internal and psychological injuries are rated against the entire body, and the percentage is applied to a single unscheduled pool of weeks. The pool is larger than any scheduled part, so each point is worth more, and the rating has more room for disagreement.
Combined values
Two ratings do not add. Under the combined-values method in the AMA Guides, a second impairment is applied to what remains after the first, so 10 percent and 10 percent combine to 19, not 20. Multi-part injuries are rated separately and then combined, and the combining step is worth checking by hand.
Loss of earning capacity states
A minority of states pay unscheduled permanent partial benefits on lost earning capacity or wage loss rather than the rating alone, weighing age, education, skills and the labor market. There the rating is evidence, not the multiplier, and vocational testimony can matter as much as the exam.
Disputing a rating: exams, second opinions and what a few points are worth
Insurers dispute ratings because the rating multiplies the whole award, and so should you when yours looks low. The insurer’s tool is the independent medical examination, an exam by a doctor it selects whose report can contest or replace your treating doctor’s rating. Your tools, depending on the state, are a second rating from a physician of your choice, a state-appointed designated or impartial examiner whose rating carries extra weight, and a hearing where an administrative law judge chooses between competing reports. In 14 jurisdictions in our database the employer or insurer controls the initial choice of treating doctor, which makes the right to an independent rating more valuable there.
Do the arithmetic before deciding whether a dispute is worth it: one rating point equals one percent of the schedule, times your weekly rate. On a 500-week whole-person pool, five disputed points are 25 weeks of benefits; on a 200-week scheduled part, the same five points are 10 weeks. Multiply by your rate and weigh that against the cost and delay of the fight.
Getting your rating right: six steps
1
Wait for maximum medical improvement
A rating assigned while you are still improving, or still scheduled for surgery, is premature and will be attacked from one side or the other. Ask the treating doctor to certify MMI first, in the chart.
2
Find out which guide and edition your state uses
Ask the agency or read the module on this page. A rating from the wrong edition can be rejected outright, and the method the rating doctor used has to be the one in the book the state adopted.
3
Bring the measurements
Range-of-motion readings, strength testing, imaging reports, nerve studies and surgical notes are the raw material of a rating. A doctor who rates without them rates from memory, and memory rates low.
4
Read the report, not just the number
Check that every injured body part was rated, that the diagnosis agrees with the treatment record, that work restrictions were addressed, and that any apportionment to a prior condition is explained. Missing parts are the most common reason a rating comes in low.
5
Decide on a second rating before an offer arrives
Deadlines to contest a rating are short in many states, and an accepted rating is hard to reopen. If the number does not fit your function, line up the second opinion before you are negotiating against it.
6
Get the rating and the Guides edition in writing before any offer
The settlement conversation should start from a signed rating report that names the edition, the body parts and the percentages. Then run the formula in the calculator with your own rate and your state’s weeks, and hold any offer against that number.
Your state changes the rules
The weeks assigned to a body part, the compensation rate and the Guides edition are all set by state law. Pick your state.
Workers' Compensation claims: the national picture
▸Filing deadlines range from 3 months to 6 years by state (average 1.8 years)
▸Typical wage-replacement rate is about 68% of your average weekly wage
▸State maximum weekly benefits average about $1,243, but vary widely
A physician’s estimate, expressed as a percentage, of the permanent function you lost to a work injury, assigned after maximum medical improvement under the guide your state has adopted. It rates the body part or the whole person, not your job. In most states it is the multiplier that sets your permanent partial disability award.
The rating doctor records objective findings such as range of motion, strength, sensation and imaging results, and looks them up in the tables of the adopted guide, most often an edition of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment. Each finding maps to a percentage range, and multiple impairments are combined rather than added. Eight states in our database use their own guides or schedules instead.
That the doctor found you permanently lost about a tenth of the function of the rated body part, or of the whole person if rated that way. In payout terms it means 10 percent of the weeks your state assigns to that part, paid at your compensation rate. It commonly corresponds to a structural injury with lasting symptoms, such as a disc herniation treated without fusion.
Five percent of the weeks your state assigns to the body part, multiplied by your weekly compensation rate. On a scheduled part with 200 weeks that is 10 weeks of benefits; on a 500-week whole-person pool it is 25 weeks. The dollar figure follows from your own rate, which is why no chart can state it for everyone.
Yes, though the path differs by state: a second rating from a doctor of your choice, a state-designated examiner, or a hearing where a judge weighs competing reports. Deadlines to object are often short, so act as soon as the report arrives. Because each point multiplies the whole award, a dispute over a few points is frequently worth it.
Usually the treating physician once you reach maximum medical improvement, sometimes a state-designated doctor, and sometimes an independent medical examiner chosen by the insurer. In Texas, for example, the health care provider who examines you determines MMI and gives the rating. Whoever it is must use the edition your state has adopted.
Maximum medical improvement is the point at which your work injury has improved as much as it is expected to improve, with or without further treatment. It ends the temporary phase: temporary wage benefits generally stop, the impairment rating is assigned, and permanent benefits begin. Some states also deem MMI reached after a set number of weeks regardless of your condition.
Not directly. The rating sets the permanent partial award; medical benefits continue on their own track as long as care is reasonable and necessary, unless you settle them. What the rating does affect is settlement leverage, because an insurer offering a lump sum for medical is pricing the same future care the rating implies.
It depends on the state and on whether the claim settles. Many states pay the award in weekly installments at the compensation rate, some pay a lump sum once the rating is final, and a negotiated settlement almost always converts it to a lump sum, sometimes discounted for early payment. Ask which form your state uses before comparing an offer with the formula.
Information on this page reflects laws and published figures as of 2026-08-29. This is general information, not legal or medical advice, and not a prediction for any potential case. Verify current rules with a licensed attorney before making decisions. Learn about our methodology.
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