Guides to workers' comp pay

Which guide answers your question

"How much will my weekly check be, and why that number?"

Start with how workers' comp pay is calculated. It walks the five steps every state uses — wage, percentage, maximum and minimum, waiting period, duration — and shows the same $1,400 worker in five states so you can see how far the answers drift.

"My insurer's wage figure looks low."

Read the average weekly wage guide. The wage is the input that moves your check most, and the table there shows the look-back window, overtime treatment and second-job rules for every state, so you can rebuild the figure from your own pay stubs.

"Why wasn't my first week paid?"

The waiting-period table lists the unpaid days in each state and how long you must be out before they are paid back — and the three states that never pay them.

"What is my claim worth?"

The settlement guide explains why no honest calculator can answer that, what a settlement is built from, and which parts you can compute exactly.

When a guide is not the right place

For a specific state's maximum, minimum, formula or deadline, go straight to that state's page from the states list: each one carries the current figures, a worked example and the statute or notice they come from, which these guides only summarize.

For a decision about your own claim — a denied claim, a disputed wage, a stopped check — the authority is your state's workers' compensation agency, not a guide. Every state page links to it, and our contact page explains where disputes go.

The guides deliberately stay general and are linked from the state pages rather than repeated on them, so each state page can spend its space on what is different about that state.