Legal Disclaimer

Effective date: April 25, 2026

This calculator provides estimates for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice. It does not create an attorney-client relationship. The estimates it produces are not settlement offers, guarantees, or predictions of any outcome. Always consult a licensed workers' compensation attorney before making any decision about your claim.

What This Calculator Is

Workers' Comp Calculator is an educational tool. It implements the statutory formulas published by each state's workers' compensation agency and applies them to the inputs you provide. The purpose is to help injured workers understand how the formula works — not to replace a lawyer, an insurance adjuster, or a state workers' compensation board.

Workers' compensation law is complex, state-specific, and subject to regular change. The formulas we implement are based on publicly available statutes and agency-published rate tables. We show every calculation step so you can verify our math against the original source. That transparency is our core design principle: we believe injured workers deserve to understand the formula their attorney uses, before they ever pick up the phone.

What This Calculator Is NOT

This calculator is not legal advice. The results it produces are not legal opinions, not binding on any court or agency, and not a representation of what you will receive. Using this calculator does not create any relationship between you and the operators of this website — not an attorney-client relationship, not a fiduciary relationship, and not any other relationship that would carry legal obligations.

The estimates produced by this calculator are mathematical outputs based on statutory formulas. Real workers' compensation outcomes depend on dozens of variables that no calculator can capture. The number you see on your screen is a starting point for your own research — not a settlement offer and not a guarantee.

Formula Sources

Our calculations are derived from the official statutory sources for each state:

New York: The Scheduled Loss of Use table published by the New York Workers' Compensation Board (wcb.ny.gov), implementing Workers' Compensation Law § 15(3). The maximum weekly benefit rate is set by the Board and updated annually on July 1.
Illinois: The permanent partial disability schedule from the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission (iwcc.il.gov), implementing the Illinois Workers' Compensation Act. PPD benefits are calculated at 60% of the injured worker's average weekly wage times the scheduled number of weeks. The maximum weekly benefit rate is updated twice per year — January 15 and July 15.
Pennsylvania: The four-tier total temporary disability formula under Section 306(a) of the Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Act, with rate figures published by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry for the current benefit year.
California: The Whole Person Impairment rating system under the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, 5th Edition, converted through the Permanent Disability Rating Schedule (PDRS) published by the California Division of Workers' Compensation (dir.ca.gov/dwc).

What the Calculator Cannot Account For

Even a perfectly accurate statutory formula cannot predict what your settlement will be, because real workers' compensation outcomes depend on many factors the formula does not capture:

Disputed claims: If your employer or their insurance carrier disputes the claim — whether the injury happened at work, whether it is as severe as reported, or whether you are entitled to benefits at all — the statutory formula is secondary to the dispute resolution process, which can involve hearings, appeals, and litigation.
Medical evidence quality: The formula assumes you have an accepted medical finding. The actual rating assigned by an Independent Medical Examiner (IME) or treating physician can vary significantly from the impairment rating you enter. Higher-quality medical documentation typically produces better outcomes.
Attorney fees: If you hire a workers' compensation attorney, their fee — typically 10–15% of the settlement in most states, subject to state statutory caps — will reduce your net recovery. The calculator does not subtract attorney fees from the estimates it shows.
Medicare Set-Aside requirements: If you are a Medicare beneficiary or will become one in the foreseeable future, your settlement may need to include a Medicare Set-Aside (MSA) arrangement to cover future medical expenses related to the injury. MSA requirements can significantly affect the structure and amount of a settlement.
Apportionment of prior injuries: Many states allow employers and insurers to apportion part of the permanent disability to pre-existing conditions or prior injuries. If you have a history of injuries to the same body part, a portion of your disability rating may be assigned to those prior injuries rather than the current one.
Vocational rehabilitation: In some states and circumstances, the insurer may offer or be required to provide vocational rehabilitation services instead of, or in addition to, a cash settlement. The cost and structure of vocational rehabilitation can affect settlement negotiations.
Future medical care costs: A settlement that closes out medical benefits permanently (a full and final settlement) will typically be valued differently from one that leaves medical benefits open. The value of future medical care — surgeries, physical therapy, medications — is often a major component of settlement negotiations that the formula alone does not reflect.
Insurance carrier negotiating position: Insurance carriers have their own claim reserves, litigation budgets, and internal policies that affect how aggressively they defend claims and what settlement amounts they will authorize. Two otherwise identical claims at different carriers can produce very different outcomes.
Employer's experience modification factor: Some employers self-insure or carry high-deductible policies, meaning they bear some of the cost of claims directly. This can affect how willing they are to settle and at what amount.
Changes in state law: Workers' compensation law changes. Rate tables, scheduled injury weeks, and benefit caps are updated periodically. If the law changed after your date of injury, the rates applicable to your claim may differ from the current rates in our calculator.

Rate Accuracy and Effective Dates

We make every effort to update our rate tables when states publish new figures. Each state calculator page displays the effective date of the rates it uses, so you can see exactly how current our figures are.

Despite our best efforts, we cannot guarantee that all rates, schedules, and formulas are current at the moment you use this calculator. Workers' compensation rates change at different intervals in different states — some annually, some twice a year, some irregularly. If you are relying on our figures for a real claim, verify the current rates directly with your state's workers' compensation agency before making any decision.

If you believe a rate or formula on this site is outdated or incorrect, please report it through our contact page. We take every report seriously and will investigate against the official state agency source.

How to Verify Our Formulas

We encourage you to verify our math against the official sources. The formulas are not secret — they are published by government agencies and are available to anyone:

New York: wcb.ny.gov — search for "Scheduled Loss of Use" and the current maximum weekly rate.
Illinois: iwcc.il.gov — search for current PPD rates and the permanent partial disability schedule.
Pennsylvania: dli.pa.gov/businesses/compensation/wc — search for the current maximum compensation rate and the § 306(a) tiered formula.
California: dir.ca.gov/dwc — search for the Permanent Disability Rating Schedule and current TTD maximum weekly benefit.

When You Should Consult an Attorney

There are circumstances under which you should always consult a licensed workers' compensation attorney, regardless of what this calculator shows:

Your claim has been denied or disputed by your employer or their insurance carrier.
You have a permanent disability, permanent impairment, or permanent loss of use of a body part.
You have experienced any retaliation from your employer — termination, demotion, reduction in hours, or hostile treatment — as a result of filing your claim.
Your injury requires or is likely to require surgery, long-term treatment, or ongoing medical care.
The insurance carrier has offered you a settlement and you are considering whether to accept it.
You are approaching a statute of limitations deadline for filing your claim.

In most workers' compensation cases, attorneys work on contingency — meaning they do not charge upfront fees. Their fee is a percentage of the settlement, paid only if you recover. This means consulting an attorney costs you nothing out of pocket at the time of consultation.

How to Find a Workers' Compensation Attorney

If you need legal representation, start with your state bar association's lawyer referral service — most state bars operate free or low-cost referral programs. You can also search the National Workers' Compensation Defense Network or ask for a referral from a general practice attorney. When you call, ask specifically whether the attorney handles workers' compensation cases and whether they work on contingency.

When you consult an attorney, bring your injury documentation, your employer's initial response to your claim, any correspondence from the insurance carrier, and the results from this calculator. Knowing the formula before you walk in helps you ask better questions and evaluate the attorney's guidance more effectively.

Limitation of Liability

The estimates produced by this calculator are provided for informational purposes only. Workers' Comp Calculator, its operators, developers, and contributors make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, or suitability of the results for any purpose. Use of this calculator is at your sole risk. In no event shall Workers' Comp Calculator or its operators be liable for any loss or damage arising from your use of or reliance on information provided by this tool.

No Government Endorsement

This website is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or operated by any state workers' compensation agency, government entity, court, or bar association. The links to official state agency websites included in this disclaimer are provided for reference only. Listing those agencies does not imply any endorsement of this website by those agencies, nor any endorsement of those agencies by us.