Workers Comp Settlement Calculator

The calculator above can read your documents so you are not retyping figures from a stack of paper. Upload your pay stubs or wage statements and it lists every wage amount it finds; a one-click button copies the figure into the average weekly wage field, and if a stub covers a biweekly or monthly period, divide it by the weeks it covers before you rely on it. The AWW drives every benefit in the claim, so verifying it against your own pay records is the single highest-value check you can run.

Upload your medical bills and the tool totals the documented treatment as context. Those bills do not add into the wage-benefit math, because workers comp pays medical care directly rather than through your weekly checks, but a documented treatment history is exactly what supports your impairment rating and your future medical position when settlement talks start. Nothing is changed automatically: every extracted number sits in a review list until you confirm it, and your files are read once and never stored.

A workers compensation case is valued from three buckets. First, wage-loss benefits: the weekly checks that replace part of your income while your doctor keeps you out of work, standardly two-thirds of your average weekly wage, subject to a state maximum. Second, the permanency award: once your condition stabilizes, a permanent partial disability payout calculated from your impairment rating, your state's body-part week schedule, and your weekly compensation rate. Third, medical care: the treatment the insurer has paid and, critically in settlement, the value of the future treatment you are likely to need.

Notice what is missing: pain and suffering. Workers comp is a no-fault wage-and-medical system, so pain and suffering is generally not recoverable, no matter how badly the injury hurts. The trade is that you do not have to prove anyone was negligent. If a third party other than your employer caused the injury, a negligent driver, a subcontractor on your site, or a defective machine, you may have a separate personal injury claim where pain and suffering is on the table. Estimate that claim with our personal injury settlement calculator, and keep in mind the comp insurer usually holds a lien on part of any third-party recovery.

The calculator above follows the standard framework: it computes your weekly TTD check, totals your wage loss, runs the impairment rating math against representative week ranges (with an override for your state's exact schedule), and frames a combined settlement value. Because every state legislature sets its own caps and schedules, treat the output as a structured starting point. When you are ready to present a number, a written, attorney-drafted settlement demand that shows the math is what adjusters respond to.

An impairment rating payout calculator runs the permanent partial disability math that most state systems share. After you reach maximum medical improvement, a physician examines you and assigns an impairment rating, a percentage expressing how much function you permanently lost, usually under the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment. That percentage is then applied to the number of weeks of compensation your state statute assigns to the injured body part. A 10% rating on a part valued at 200 weeks entitles you to 20 weeks of PPD checks; a 50% rating on the same part entitles you to 100 weeks.

The last input is the weekly PPD rate, commonly two-thirds of your average weekly wage, capped by the state, and in some states subject to a separate, often lower, PPD maximum than the TTD maximum. Multiply the weeks owed by the weekly rate and you have the scheduled payout. Two claims with identical ratings can therefore produce very different dollars: the wage, the state week count, and the applicable cap all move the number. This is also why insurers fight the rating itself so hard. A few rating points on a high-week body part are worth thousands of dollars, and most states give you the right to a second opinion or an independent medical examination if you believe the rating is low.

Temporary total disability benefits, or TTD, are the weekly wage-replacement checks you receive while your doctor certifies you cannot work at all. The standard formula is two-thirds (66.67%) of your average weekly wage, subject to a state maximum weekly benefit that varies by state and is usually adjusted each year. Your average weekly wage is typically computed from your gross earnings over the weeks before the injury, often 26 or 52 weeks, and where your state allows it should include overtime, bonuses, and concurrent employment. TTD checks are generally not taxed.

Two numbers deserve scrutiny on every benefit notice. First, the AWW itself: insurers sometimes compute it from base pay only, include weeks of unpaid leave in the divisor, or ignore a second job, and every one of those errors shrinks both your TTD checks and your eventual PPD payout. Second, the cap: if your wage is high, the state maximum may bind, which is why the calculator lets you enter your state's cap and warns you when the uncapped figure may overstate. If your doctor releases you to light duty at lower pay, most states switch you to temporary partial disability, which pays a fraction of the wage difference rather than the full TTD rate. Track your weeks and pay with records; our free invoice generator helps self-employed and gig workers document earnings.

Maximum medical improvement (MMI) is the medical finding that your condition has plateaued: further treatment may maintain you, but it is not expected to make you meaningfully better. MMI is the hinge of a workers comp claim. Before it, you are in the temporary phase, collecting TTD and treating. At MMI, the physician assigns your impairment rating, usually under the AMA Guides, and the claim shifts to permanency: what you are owed for the function you will not get back, and what your future medical care is worth.

MMI is also when leverage changes. Insurers often push for a quick settlement right at MMI, before future medical needs are fully projected, and sometimes they schedule their own examination to obtain a lower rating. You do not have to accept the first rating or the first number. Get the rating report, understand which edition of the Guides your state uses, and compare the insurer's rating to your treating doctor's. If work restrictions keep you from returning to your old job, some states add or substitute wage-differential or vocational benefits, which belong in the settlement value too. All of that is exactly the documentation a written settlement position should lay out. For a deeper walkthrough of MMI and impairment ratings, including how to challenge a rating you disagree with, see our dedicated guide.

A workers comp back injury settlement works differently from a hand or foot claim because the back is not on most states' schedules. Scheduled injuries, an arm, a hand, a leg, a foot, an eye, hearing, have fixed statutory week values. Unscheduled injuries, the back, the neck, the head, internal organs, and psychological conditions, are instead valued against a whole person or body as a whole week count. Georgia, for example, uses 300 weeks for body as a whole, and other states use substantially different numbers, which is why this calculator shows a wide representative range for whole-person injuries and lets you enter your state's exact figure.

Back cases also settle less mechanically than the formula suggests. Ratings for spinal injuries are medically contested, future care (injections, fusion surgery, pain management) is expensive and hard to project, and permanent lifting or standing restrictions can end a career in physical work, which brings wage-differential and vocational issues into the number. In practice, a back settlement prices the whole package: the permanency math, the projected medical spend, and the risk each side carries if the case goes to a hearing. That makes documentation decisive. A demand that attaches the rating report, the restriction notes, and a future-care projection consistently outperforms a bare verbal number. When you are ready, a professionally drafted demand letter puts that package in writing.

A lump sum settlement converts your remaining entitlements, future weekly checks and often future medical care, into a single payment, and in most states it closes the claim for good. Ongoing benefits keep the weekly checks and open medical coverage flowing but leave you inside the system: adjuster approvals, utilization review, and independent medical examinations for as long as the claim stays open. Neither is automatically better. A lump sum buys certainty and control, and insurers pay for the closure. Ongoing benefits protect you if your condition deteriorates, because a settled claim generally cannot be reopened.

Three things deserve special attention before you take a lump sum. First, whether the settlement closes future medical: that is usually the most valuable and most underpriced part of the deal. Second, Medicare set-asides: if you are on Medicare or expect to be soon, federal rules may require part of the settlement to be reserved for future injury-related treatment, which reduces the cash you actually pocket. Third, approval: many states require a workers compensation judge or board to review and approve any settlement before it is final, a safeguard that exists precisely because injured workers were historically pressured into cheap closures. An approval hearing goes better when the settlement is supported by a documented position showing the math, which is also the document that got the number up in the first place.

You are not required to have one, and simple claims, a short recovery, no permanency, benefits paid on time, are routinely resolved without counsel. The calculus changes at settlement. The insurer values your claim with professionals every day; most injured workers do it once in a lifetime. Representation or, at minimum, professional documentation earns its keep when the impairment rating is disputed, when the injury is an unscheduled back or neck claim, when future medical is significant, when Medicare is in the picture, or when the insurer's offer arrived fast and feels light. Those are the situations where a few rating points or a future-care projection swing the value by five figures.

Whatever you decide about representation, do not negotiate a settlement by phone. Put your position in writing: your average weekly wage with proof, your rating and who assigned it, your state's schedule math, your restrictions, and your projected future medical needs, with the records attached. A written, documented demand changes the conversation because it shows the adjuster, and the judge or board that may have to approve the deal, that you know what the claim is worth. You can have a licensed attorney draft your settlement demand for a flat fee, or see the demand letter options to get started.