Arizona Workers Comp Settlement Chart
If you have a workers’ compensation claim as an injured worker, we understand that you will want to know how much you can expect to receive in monthly workers’ compensation insurance benefits. This is where a workers’ comp settlement chart comes in handy.
However, as we will see, calculating workers’ compensation disability benefits can be hard to condense into a single workers’ comp settlement chart or table. This is because the amount of benefits you can receive depends heavily on the nature and severity of the work-related injury, illness, or condition that is the basis of your workers’ compensation claim.
What we will show you here is how to factor in the different parts of the workers’ compensation benefits framework, so you and your workers’ compensation lawyer can work together to make sure you receive all the benefits you are entitled to.
Our highly experienced workers’ compensation lawyers at the Matt Fendon Law Group will handle your workers’ comp case so you can worry less about money and more about recovery. Call us today at (800) 229-3880 to talk with one of our workers’ compensation specialists about your workers’ comp case.
Lost Earnings Claims for Temporary Disability
Temporary Arizona workers’ compensation claims come in two basic types: medical-only claims, and time-loss claims. Medical-only claims do not involve any benefit claims for being unable to work, they only cover medical bills. Time-loss claims include both medical benefits claims and claims for benefits based on an inability to work.
Time-Loss Claims Eligibility
To qualify for workers’ compensation benefits because you have lost at least some ability to work, you must be found by a doctor to either be unable to work, or to be restricted to light-duty work, for at least seven calendar days. This inability to work must cause you to lose earnings.
Once you clear that threshold, then this is how time-loss calculation works at the beginning:
| Number of lost earning days | Effect on time-loss compensation claim |
| At least 7 | You qualify for time-loss claim compensation, subject to the conditions below. |
| Between 7 and 13 days | If your loss of earnings is for less than 14 days, then you will not receive compensation for the first 7 days. After the first 7 days, you will be eligible for lost earnings compensation for the remainder of the lost earning days. |
| 14 days or more | You are eligible to receive lost earnings compensation for all days you qualify for, including the first 7 days, including the day of the work injury. |
Temporary Total Disability Payments
The general rule in Arizona is that if you have a temporary but total disability, then you receive workers’ compensation benefits at the rate of 66 and ⅔ percent of your average monthly wage:
[Your calculated average monthly wage]
x 66.66%
= Your anticipated temporary disability amount, up to the maximum allowable amount.
What is the Average Monthly Wage in Arizona?
Your average monthly wage in Arizona is unique to you, up to a certain dollar amount. It is usually the sum of what you received in earnings in the 30 days leading up to the day of your injury, although some other ways exist to calculate it.
Your average monthly wage will be either the 30-day calculated sum above or – if you made more than a certain amount the state of Arizona establishes every year – your average monthly wage will be capped at that amount.
This is known as your maximum average monthly wage. Here is how it works through 2024:
Source: Industrial Commission of Arizona, AMW Statutory Maximum Information
Using the information above, we can see that for 2023, the maximum lost earnings benefit you could receive would be:
| If your injury happens after this date | Then this is your maximum monthly temporary disability payout |
|---|---|
| January 1, 2021 | $3,359.61 |
| January 1, 2022 | $3,406.34 |
| January 1, 2023 | $3535.49 |
| January 1, 2024 | $3737.61 |
Temporary Partial Disability Payments
If you can still work to some extent, such as light duty work, then the lost earning calculation works differently than it does for a total partial disability. The formula is 66 and ⅔ percent of the difference between your pre-injury wages and your post-injury wages. Unemployment benefits the injured worker receives count as post-injury wages for this calculation.
Note that to keep light compensation claim eligibility, you must complete a monthly status report of your earnings.
Workers’ Compensation Benefits Based on Permanent Impairment
If your work-related injury is one that despite treatment still leaves you with an ongoing functional impairment, then for workers’ compensation benefit purposes that injury is a permanent impairment.
Permanent impairment disabilities come in two kinds: scheduled and unscheduled.
Scheduled Impairment Disabilities
A scheduled impairment is one for which workers’ compensation establishes a set amount that the workers’ compensation insurer will pay monthly.
Arizona Scheduled Permanent Partial Disability Payments
Generally speaking Arizona scheduled disability compensation takes one of three forms:
- Partial loss impairment, for which you will receive 50 percent of your average monthly wage.
- Losses from amputation or other total loss of use, for which you will receive 55 percent of the average monthly wage plus compensation for temporary total disability.
- Injuries that keep you from returning to the essential duties of your work, for which you will receive 75 percent of your average monthly wage.
Another aspect of scheduled impairment disability payments is that they are finite. You can only receive them for up to a certain number of months. The following can be treated as a workers’ comp settlement chart for people entitled to financial support for permanent disability benefits:
Permanent Disability Injury Schedule
| Injured Body Part | Months of Compensation |
| Separation or complete loss of use of a thumb | 55% of average monthly wage for 15 months |
| Separation or complete loss of use of a first or “index” finger | 55% of average monthly wage for 9 months |
| Separation or complete loss of use of a second finger | 55% of average monthly wage for 7 months |
| Separation or complete loss of use of a third finger | 55% of average monthly wage for 5 months |
| Separation or complete loss of use of a fourth finger | 55% of average monthly wage for 4 months |
| Loss of one phalange bone in a thumb or finger | Half the period above for the appropriate injury. |
| Loss of two or more phalange bones in a thumb or finger | Same as for the loss of the entire corresponding finger. |
| Separation or complete loss of use of a great or “big” toe | 55% of average monthly wage for 7 months |
| Separation or complete loss of use of any other toe | 55% of average monthly wage for 2.5 months |
| Loss of the first phalange of any toe | Half the time period above for the affected toe. |
| Loss of more than one phalange bone in any toe | Same as for the loss of the entire corresponding toe. |
| Separation or complete loss of use of a hand | For loss of the major or “favored” hand, 50 months. For loss of the minor hand, 40 months. |
| Separation or complete loss of use of an arm | For the loss of the major or “favored” arm, 55% of average monthly wage for 60 months. For the loss of the minor arm, 55% of average monthly wage for 50 months. |
| Separation or complete loss of use of a foot | 55% of average monthly wage for 40 months |
| Separation or complete loss of use of a leg | 55% of average monthly wage for 50 months |
| Loss of one eye be enucleation(a surgical procedure that removes the entire globe of the eye and its intraocular contents but leaves the eye muscles and remaining orbital contents intact) | 55% of average monthly wage for 30 months |
| Permanent and complete loss of sight in one eye, without enucleation | 55% of average monthly wage for 25 months |
| Permanent and complete loss of hearing in one ear | 55% of average monthly wage for 20 months |
| Permanent and complete loss of hearing in both ears | 55% of average monthly wage for 60 months |
| Partial loss of use of a finger, toe, arm, hand, foot or leg Partial loss of sight or hearing | 50% of the average monthly wage during the proportional number of months provided for total loss of use of the same finger, toe, hand, foot, or limb. The proportion is based on the proportion of total loss that the partial loss represents. If the worker cannot return to the work that person was performing at the time of the injury, then compensation is 75% of the average monthly wage. |
| Disfigurement of the head or face, including loss of or injury to teeth | 55% of average monthly wage for up to 18 months, if the Commission decides that compensation is just based on proof submitted by the worker. |
Unscheduled Impairment Disabilities
Unscheduled impairments are those that do not qualify as scheduled impairments. Examples of unscheduled impairments include occupational diseases, hip injuries, shoulder or back injuries, a combination of impairments, or a history of past claims for impairments.
For unscheduled impairment disabilities, the ICA will decide how much compensation you will receive, if any, based on the effect your injury has on your ability to go back to work and how much you would be able to earn compared to what you used to earn before the disability. In making its decision the ICA will consider your age, your education, your prior occupations, your physical limitations, and what your post-injury wages have been.
Unscheduled Permanent Partial Impairment Benefits
The ICA calculates unscheduled permanent partial compensation according to the following formula:
55% of the sum of:
[Your average monthly wage]
-Minus-
[How much the ICA estimates you will be able to earn as reduced earning capacity]
Unscheduled Permanent Total Impairment Benefits
If the ICA determines that your unscheduled impairment disability means a total loss of income earning capacity for you, then your unscheduled permanent total disability benefit amount will be two-thirds of your wage, or 66 and ⅔ percent of your average monthly wage.
Arizona Workers’ Compensation Lawyers Serving You
As you can see from everything above, determining how much you might receive in workers’ compensation monthly disability benefits as part of an ongoing or comprehensive workers’ comp claim settlement can involve extensive factual investigation, medical examinations and treatments (which means hefty medical expenses), dealing with a workers’ compensation insurance company, and analysis of how effective treatment is in helping you to return to work.
The workers’ compensation settlement chart and various tables above can give you an estimate of how much you might be able to receive for a work injury claim. To gain a clearer and more comprehensive understanding of how workers’ compensation disability works, and to ensure that your workers’ comp settlement includes everything you are entitled to make a claim for, including lost wages and your medical expenses, we recommend that you contact one of our workers’ compensation attorneys at (800) 229-3880.
Arizona workers’ compensation law does not require you to have a lawyer to file a claim. Remember, though, that anyone who does not have an experienced workers’ compensation benefits lawyer must still follow all the rules and regulations involved in making a benefits claim, including the rules of procedure for hearings before the Industrial Commission of Arizona (ICA). It can be harmful to your claim to learn by experience, especially if that experience comes through making mistakes.
At the Matt Fendon Law Group, our workers’ compensation benefits lawyers know how to navigate an Arizona workers’ comp case through all the benefits schedules and regulations to make sure that you receive a fair settlement for your claims. Don’t leave your benefits to chance. Call us today at (800) 229-3880 to talk with one of our workers’ compensation specialists about your workers’ comp case:
- We offer free initial consultations for workers’ compensation claims, and we are available by telephone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- For your convenience, we have law offices in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Prescott, Tucson, and Flagstaff.
If you prefer to communicate with us online to ask a question about your workers’ compensation claim, you can reach us here.
Don’t let the complexity of a workers’ comp settlement chart (and workers’ comp law in general) keep you from filing a claim for disability benefits. Put the Matt Fendon Law Group on your side today.
