If you have been hurt on the job in New York, you can receive payments for the time that you are off work due to your injury. These payments are typically referred to as “temporary disability benefits” since they are payments made to you during the temporary period that you miss from work after the injury. The amount you receive will depend on several factors, which I will discuss further below. However, it is important to know that the amount of pay that you get while out of work will almost always be less than what you make while working. With that said, workers’ compensation benefits in New York are not taxable income, so you do not have to pay taxes on the money that you receive from workers’ compensation.
Let’s now dive a little deeper into some of the factors that will influence how much you can get paid if you are missing work due to a work-related injury in New York.
First Things First: You Need to Have a Compensable Workers’ Compensation Claim
To be eligible for temporary disability benefits on your workers’ compensation claim, you first need to have a compensable work-related injury.
In other words, the accident and resulting injury must be something that is covered by workers’ compensation. For example, a nurse who hurts her back while lifting a patient from their bed would clearly be a compensable injury. In contrast, however, an employee who gets injured away from work (for example, at home) would generally not have a covered work-related injury and would thus not be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits.
While determining what is a covered work-related injury and what is not can get a bit complicated, for the purpose of this article you just need to know that the first step to figuring out how much you will get paid is to make sure that you have a compensable injury.
Step 2: You Need to See a Doctor for Your Injury
If you have been injured at work in New York, it is always important that you see a doctor. This is not only because you want to make sure that you receive proper treatment but also because your ability to receive temporary disability payments may depend on it.
To be eligible for temporary disability payments on your New York workers’ compensation claim, there needs to be medical evidence of a work-related disability. “Medical evidence” basically means that there is a doctor who states in a medical report that she evaluated you and that your work-related injury is the reason why you cannot work. If you are out of work but there is no medical report stating that the reason that you are out of work is due to your work-related injury, the insurance company may refuse to issue payments to you. This is why it is so important to get medical attention immediately and to continue to see your doctor regularly throughout the entire time that you are out of work.
Step 3: Figuring Out Your Pre-Accident Average Weekly Wage (AWW)
If you have a covered work-related injury (see step 1) and medical evidence supporting your lost time (see step 2), it is now time to figure out your “average weekly wage” (AWW).
To figure out your AWW, your employer will send the insurance company your payroll records for the 52 weeks prior to your date of accident. If you have worked for your employer for less than a year, your employer may use payroll records for a similar worker who has worked a full year prior to the date of accident.
Once the payroll records are obtained, your AWW is calculated based on your gross earnings – not just your take home pay. There are several methods that can be used to calculate the AWW. In a future blog post, I will go more in depth about those methods since there are situations that can make figuring out the correct AWW a bit more complicated, but for now the basic concept to understand is that payroll records are used to figure out what you make in an average week.
For the purpose of this article, let’s use an easy example to demonstrate the calculation of an average weekly wage. Let’s say we have an injured worker who earned $80,000 in the 52 weeks before the date of accident. Let’s further assume for this example that the injured worker is a five-day worker and consistently worked five days for all of those 52 weeks, which means they worked a total of 260 days during that period.
To figure out this hypothetical person’s AWW, you take $80,000 and divide it by 52 weeks. That results in an average weekly wage of $1,538.46.
Of course, if we change some of the facts of this hypothetical example, things can get a bit more complicated. For example, if they only worked 32 weeks before the accident, we would need to get a similar worker’s payroll records. Or if they are a five-day worker who worked 52 weeks but the payroll records show a total of 250 days worked rather than 260, we would need to use what is called a 260 multiplier to figure out the correct rate. Let’s discuss that in a future post as for now what you really need to know is just that determining your AWW is a critical step in figuring out how much you can get paid while out on workers’ compensation in New York.
Step 4: Determining the Correct Rate for Temporary Disability Payments on a New York Workers’ Compensation Case
Once the average weekly wage is set, it is time to figure out the correct rate of pay for your temporary disability payments. Recall that the amount you get paid on workers’ compensation will generally not be the same that you get paid while working. So in our example above, if the injured worker’s average weekly wage was $1,538.46, their rate of pay on workers’ compensation would not be $1,538.46 – it would be less and the exact amount would depend on two key factors.
The first thing to consider for figuring out the correct rate of temporary disability pay is the “medical evidence.” In other words, what does the doctor say about your ability to work? Is the doctor saying that you are 100% temporarily disabled? Or is the doctor saying that you are less than 100% temporarily disabled? Can you work light duty with restrictions? Or are you completely out of work?
If the doctor is saying that you are completely unable to work – meaning 100% disabled or sometimes referred to as “temporary total disability” (TTD) – then your rate of pay will be 2/3rds of your average weekly wage (AWW) subject to state minimums and maximums discussed further below.
If, however, the doctor is saying something like you are only “partially disabled” or “can work light duty with restrictions” then your weekly benefit rate might be less than the 2/3rds rate discussed above. Sometimes the doctor might even give a certain percentage of impairment for partial disability such as 25%, 50%, 75%, or any other number besides 100%. So, for example, if your doctor says you are “50% disabled and can work light duty” but your employer cannot accommodate light duty, you could see your weekly benefit rate get cut in half from the 2/3rds rate that would apply if you were totally disabled.
Let me help illustrate all of this using our hypothetical injured worker with the $1,538.46 average weekly wage (AWW). If her doctor says she is 100% temporarily disabled, then she would get 2/3rds of her AWW as her weekly benefit rate, which would come out to $1,025.64 per week. If, however, her doctor says she is “50% partially disabled and can work light duty with restrictions” but her employer unfortunately cannot accommodate those restrictions, the insurance company would then only pay her $512.82 per week.
As you can see, what your doctor has to say about your temporary disability can have a major impact on how much money you get while out of work. This is why it can often be critical to have clear and open communication with your doctor about your injury. If your doctor doesn’t realize the true extent of your injury and how it is impacting your ability to perform various functions, the doctor may put a lower percentage which can in turn decrease the amount of money you receive for your injury. Oftentimes, having a workers’ compensation lawyer by your side can help you better understand the process and come up with a plan to ensure that you don’t miss out on potential compensation.
In addition to the impact of the doctor’s opinion on your temporary impairment percentage, the second thing to consider for figuring out the correct rate of temporary disability pay is that there are minimum and maximum benefit rates set by the state of New York. These minimums and maximums change periodically, so the applicable rates can vary depending on the date of accident. Effective 7/1/25, the maximum benefit rate is $1,171.46 for any date of accident from 7/1/25 to 6/30/25. And effective 1/1/25, the minimum benefit rate is $325 for any date of accident from 1/1/25 or after.
Let me give you two new hypothetical examples to help show how the minimum and maximum benefit rates can impact how much an injured worker gets paid.
Let’s say we have an injured worker who was injured on March 31st, 2025. His average weekly wage (AWW) is $450 and his doctor is saying that he is 100% temporarily disabled from work. Two-thirds of this $450 AWW is $300, which happens to be below the state minimum rate of $325. As a result, this injured worker would receive a weekly benefit of $325 while out of work since that is the state minimum.
In contrast, let’s say we have an injured worker with a $2,000 AWW who was injured on March 31st, 2025. Her doctor says she is also 100% temporarily disabled. Two-thirds of this $2,000 AWW is $1,333.33, which happens to be above the state maximum of $1,171.46. Therefore, in this situation the injured worker would only receive a weekly benefit of $1,171.46 while out of work since that is the state maximum.
As you can see, the state minimum can be beneficial to individuals who are lower wage earners while the maximum can be harmful to higher wage earners. Again, these minimum and maximum rates change over time based on the date of accident, so it is important to ensure that the correct minimum or maximum amount is being used based on your date of accident.
Conclusion
Determining the correct rate of pay for the time you miss from work on your workers’ compensation claim can be nuanced and often requires a thorough analysis of both the facts of your case and the applicable law. The key factors that can have a major impact on your rate of pay are: 1) whether you have a compensable workers’ compensation injury; 2) your doctor’s opinion on your disability percentage; 3) your average weekly wage; and 4) any applicable state minimum or maximum benefit rates that could apply. In addition to these temporary disability benefits, there could also come a time when your disability is determined to be permanent, which could entitle you to further benefits for a permanent disability. Therefore, if you were injured at work and would like to know more about what types of benefits might apply to your case, a workers’ compensation lawyer can help you understand your legal rights in an effort to make sure that you get all of the compensation available to you under the law.
Contact the Law Office of Michael J. McConnell today for a free consultation to discuss your workers’ compensation claim.
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