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Workers' Comp Settlement Chart: How Payouts by Body Part Actually Work
Search “workers’ comp settlement chart” and you will find pages of confident dollar grids — none of which match how comp actually pays. There is no national chart. There is a formula: your wage-based compensation rate, times a number of weeks your state assigns to the injured body part, times your impairment rating. This guide shows the real math, the real body-part logic, and — through the state module — your state’s real numbers.
Quick answer
Workers’ comp settlements are computed, not looked up: your weekly compensation rate (about two-thirds of your average weekly wage, capped by a state maximum) × the weeks your state’s schedule assigns to the body part × your impairment percentage — plus any unpaid medical and wage benefits. The same shoulder at the same rating can settle for meaningfully different amounts across state lines because the rate caps and week schedules differ. Pick your state below for its actual rates, and use the calculator to run your own claim.
By the CaseValue.law Editorial Team·Last updated and source-checked October 30, 2026·How we estimate
How a comp settlement is actually computed
Comp settlements are built from schedules and rates, not negotiation theater: the same inputs produce the same frame in every state’s system.
Start with your average weekly wage (AWW) — generally your gross earnings over the year before the injury, divided by 52. Your compensation rate is a fraction of AWW, two-thirds in most states, but capped at a state maximum that changes annually and varies enormously. While you cannot work at all, you receive temporary total disability (TTD) at that rate; light duty at lower pay triggers temporary partial (TPD). These wage benefits plus covered medical care are the running meter of a comp claim.
The settlement math begins when you reach maximum medical improvement (MMI) — the point where doctors say your condition has plateaued. A physician then assigns an impairment rating (a percentage) under your state’s adopted edition of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment. That rating drives the permanent partial disability (PPD) award: rating × the weeks your state assigns to the body part × your compensation rate. A settlement — often called a Compromise and Release — typically bundles the PPD value, any disputed back benefits, and (critically) the projected cost of future medical care you are giving up.
The formula’s state inputs: PPD rate, weekly cap and PPD weeks in all 50 states and D.C.
Permanent partial disability rate, maximum weekly benefit and maximum PPD weeks by state, from the CaseValue.law state legal database
Multiply the rate by your average weekly wage (capped at the weekly maximum), then by the weeks your state’s schedule assigns to the body part and rating. Where a state sets no single maximum for PPD weeks, the duration comes from its schedule or rating method, which the state calculator applies. Weekly maximums change every year in most states; confirm the current figure with your state agency before relying on it.
The chart: what drives value, body part by body part
There is no national payout chart by body part; any page that prints one is guessing at two of the three inputs. What each state does publish is a schedule of weeks per body part, and the state table above gives the rate, the weekly cap and the maximum PPD weeks that the schedule is applied to. These fifteen categories are the same ones our workers’ comp calculator uses. For each: what typically drives the rating, and where a deeper guide exists. Actual dollar output = your state’s rate × weeks × rating — which is why this chart maps logic, not dollars.
Head / brain
Concussion and TBI claims rate on cognitive residuals — memory, processing, headaches — usually documented through neuropsychological testing. See our concussion settlement guide for the medical-record playbook.
Eyes
Vision loss is a scheduled loss in most states — a fixed number of weeks for an eye — with partial vision loss prorated. Monocular workers rate high because the remaining eye carries everything.
Ears / hearing
Occupational hearing loss uses audiogram-based formulas, and many states run a separate occupational-disease clock from the last injurious exposure. Tinnitus adds rating points in some schedules.
Neck (cervical spine)
Whiplash-pattern strains through disc herniations. Spine ratings are whole-person (unscheduled) in most states — smaller percentages, bigger week pools. Our whiplash and herniated disc guides cover the medical side.
Shoulder
Rotator cuff tears and labrum injuries — the classic overhead-work claim. Range-of-motion measurements drive the rating, and surgical repairs rate higher than conservative care.
Arm / elbow
Scheduled member in nearly every state. Fractures, epicondylitis, and nerve entrapment rate on motion loss and grip-strength deficits.
Hand / wrist / fingers
The most schedule-driven category: states assign specific weeks per digit and for the hand. Carpal tunnel (repetitive stress) is compensable but rating-contested; function loss for manual trades supports higher permanent awards.
Back (lumbar spine)
The most common comp claim in the system. Whole-person ratings under the AMA Guides; disc herniations with radiculopathy and fusion surgeries anchor the high end. See the herniated disc guide.
Hip / pelvis
Falls and heavy-labor degeneration claims; replacements rate substantially. Aggravation of pre-existing arthritis is compensable in most states — apportionment fights are standard.
Leg / knee
Meniscus and ligament tears from twisting, kneeling, and falls. Scheduled member; surgical history and post-repair instability drive the rating. Fracture patterns are covered in our broken bones guide.
Foot / ankle / toes
Calcaneus (heel) fractures from ladder falls are the signature serious claim here — slow healing, standing-work career impact. Scheduled weeks with proration for partial loss.
Internal organs
Hernias, organ damage from trauma, heat illness. Often unscheduled whole-person ratings; hernia claims carry special notice rules in several states.
Skin
Burns, chemical exposure, and severe dermatitis. Rating follows disfigurement schedules plus function loss; many states add separate disfigurement awards for visible scarring.
Respiratory
Occupational asthma, dust and fume disease. Pulmonary-function testing drives ratings; occupational-disease statutes of limitation run from diagnosis or last exposure, not first symptoms.
Multiple body parts
Combined ratings do not simply add — the AMA combined-values method discounts each additional part. Serious multi-part injuries push toward permanent total disability instead, a different benefit entirely.
Scheduled vs. unscheduled: why identical injuries settle differently
Most states split injuries into two systems, and which system your body part falls under explains most of the “same injury, different settlement” confusion.
Scheduled losses
Arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet, eyes, hearing: the statute assigns a fixed number of weeks per member. The math is mechanical — weeks × rate × rating — which makes these awards predictable within a state and wildly different across states with different schedules.
Unscheduled (whole-person) losses
Spine, head, internal, psychological: rated as a percentage of the whole person against a larger week pool, with more room for dispute — and in many states, consideration of lost earning capacity rather than the rating alone.
Why state lines matter so much
Maximum weekly rates and week schedules are set state by state. The identical 10% hand rating can differ by a factor of several times across borders — the module below shows your state’s actual maximum and rate.
Where the real fights happen
Ratings, not formulas: the insurer’s examiner rates low, your physician rates higher, and most states give you a path to a second opinion or independent rating. A few rating points on the spine move settlements by five figures.
The lump-sum trap: what a full settlement really closes
A Compromise and Release trades everything — including lifetime medical care for the injury — for one payment. For a healed fracture, that trade can be clean. For a spine, a shoulder headed toward re-tear, or anything with hardware, future medical is routinely the most valuable thing on the table, and its projected cost belongs in the settlement number explicitly.
Two checks before signing any full-and-final settlement: (1) a written projection of future medical costs — surgeries, injections, imaging, therapy — priced into the offer line by line; and (2) if you are on or near Medicare, whether a Medicare Set-Aside is required, because settling without one can jeopardize coverage for the injury. Most states also cap or board-approve attorney fees in comp (commonly in the 10–20% range), so advice here is cheaper than in most legal settings.
Before you settle: the six-step sequence
1
Reach MMI first
Settling before maximum medical improvement means pricing an injury whose final severity nobody knows. Insurers offer early for exactly that reason.
2
Get the rating — and question it
Ask which AMA Guides edition your state uses, what percentage was assigned, and to what body part. If it feels low, most states fund or allow a second-opinion rating. This number multiplies everything.
3
Project future medical in writing
Ask the treating physician what care the injury will need over 5, 10, 20 years. That projection is the core of a fair full-and-final number.
4
Audit the back benefits
Unpaid TTD weeks, mileage to appointments, out-of-pocket prescriptions — disputed past benefits belong in the settlement on top of the PPD math, not blended into it.
5
Check the offset interactions
SSDI offsets, Medicare Set-Asides, and unemployment interactions can change the real value of a structure. Cheap advice here prevents expensive surprises.
6
Run your own number first
Our workers’ comp calculator applies your wage, state rates, body part, and rating band in about two minutes — a written frame to hold any offer against.
Your state changes the rules
Comp is the most state-dependent claim on this site: rates, caps, and week schedules all live in state law. Pick your state to see its actual numbers — the national picture is below.
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 $1,243, but vary widely
Not a dollar chart that is honest, no. Comp is computed from your wage-based rate, your state’s week schedule for the body part, and your impairment rating — three inputs that vary by person and state. Any grid promising “$X for a shoulder” is ignoring at least two of the three. The chart that IS real is your state’s schedule of weeks, which the module on this page reflects.
The chart that exists is a schedule of weeks, not of dollars. Every state assigns a number of weeks to each scheduled body part (an arm, a hand, a leg, a foot, an eye, hearing) and a single pool of weeks to whole-person injuries such as the spine. The payout for a body part is that number of weeks, multiplied by your impairment rating, multiplied by your weekly compensation rate. So the “value” or “price” of a body part differs for two workers with the same injury when their wages or their states differ. The fifteen-category chart on this page shows what drives the rating for each part; the state table gives the rate, cap and week inputs.
A PPD rating chart is really two documents. The first is the rating table in the impairment guide your state has adopted, an edition of the AMA Guides in most states, which turns measured function loss into a percentage. The second is the state’s statutory schedule, which turns that percentage into weeks of benefits for the rated body part. Neither prints a dollar figure; the dollars come from multiplying the weeks by your own compensation rate. Our impairment rating payout chart guide walks through the rating step and the math at 5, 10 and 25 percent.
Because all three inputs are set by state law. The compensation rate is a fraction of your wage capped at a state maximum that is reset every year; the weeks for each body part come from the state’s own schedule; and the impairment guide edition that produces the rating differs by state. The same shoulder at the same rating can be worth several times more on one side of a state line than on the other. The 51-row table on this page lists each state’s PPD rate, weekly cap and maximum PPD weeks, and every row links to that state’s calculator.
Published analyses commonly cite overall averages in the $20,000–$60,000 range, with serious injuries — spine surgeries, brain injuries, amputations — reported well into six figures. Averages blend minor sprains with catastrophic claims, so they say little about yours: rate × weeks × rating plus future medical says much more.
It is a physician’s standardized estimate of permanent function loss, expressed as a percentage of a body part or the whole person, under your state’s adopted AMA Guides edition. It is also the single most leverage-heavy number in your claim, because it multiplies the entire permanent award — which is why second-opinion ratings exist and are worth using when the first rating feels low.
You can, and insurers will happily oblige — but settling pre-MMI means guessing at your final condition and usually waiving the future care you have not needed yet. The defensible sequence is MMI, rating, future-medical projection, then numbers.
MMI, maximum medical improvement, is the point at which your doctor expects no further significant recovery. It usually ends temporary wage benefits and triggers the impairment rating that sets the permanent award, which is why settlement numbers are most reliable after it. The impairment rating payout chart guide on this site explains MMI and how a rating turns into dollars.
Depends on the settlement type. Indemnity-only settlements can leave medical open in some states. A full Compromise and Release closes medical — after that, you (or your health insurance, with limits, or a Medicare Set-Aside account if one was funded) pay for injury care. This is the term to understand completely before signing.
Denied claims settle constantly — denial is often an opening position, and the settlement price reflects litigation risk on both sides. The sequence changes (hearing deadlines now matter most), but the valuation logic in this guide still frames what a fair resolution looks like. The workers’ comp claim denied guide covers the appeal path and the deadlines that now matter most.
Generally no. Federal law excludes amounts received under a workers’ compensation act as compensation for a work injury or occupational sickness from income, and the exclusion extends to benefits paid to a deceased worker’s survivors. The edges are narrow: a retirement pension measured by age or service is not covered even if an injury prompted it, light-duty wages after you return to work are taxable pay, and a part of your benefit that offsets Social Security may be treated as Social Security. Nothing on this page is tax advice. The settlement taxes guide cites the code sections and IRS publications behind each of those lines.
It can. SSDI benefits are offset when combined comp-plus-SSDI income exceeds a threshold — settlement language can spread the amount to soften the offset. Medicare requires its interests be considered in settlements closing future medical, sometimes via a formal Set-Aside. Both are structural issues to solve before signing, not after.
After a full Compromise and Release, almost never — that finality is what the insurer is buying. Some states allow reopening non-final award types within time limits when a condition worsens. Which kind of resolution you are signing is therefore the first question to ask about any offer.
Information on this page reflects laws and published figures as of 2026-10-30. 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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