Methodology

1. The data: one rule record per jurisdiction

For each of the 50 states and DC we store the benefit formula, the minimum rule, the waiting period and payback trigger, any week limit on temporary total disability, the partial-disability formula where it is a clean statutory formula, and a list of dated rate periods — each with its maximum and minimum and the document that published them. Every dollar figure was read from the state's own statute, rate notice, bulletin or rate table on Oct 5, 2026; the sources page lists every document. We never use figures from law-firm pages or national summaries, which in this field frequently disagree with the agencies.

2. The engine

A single JavaScript module computes every result: the calculator in your browser, the worked examples printed on each state page and our automated tests all call the same functions, so they cannot disagree. All money is handled in whole cents with exact fractions — two-thirds is computed as ×2÷3 with half-up rounding to the cent, not as 0.6667 — and the result is rounded once. Arkansas and Utah round the weekly rate to the whole dollar because their agencies do.

The order of operations follows the statutes: wage → percentage → minimum rule → maximum → dependency add-ons and their caps. The minimum rule is modelled in the form each state actually uses: a flat floor; a floor that gives way to your full wage when you earn less (Alabama, New York and many others); a floor that gives way to 90% or 75% of your wage (Pennsylvania, Oregon, Vermont, Idaho, Connecticut); minimums that rise with dependents (Illinois, Utah, Washington); and Iowa's minimum, which is the table rate of a worker earning 35% of the state average wage.

3. After-tax states use the agencies' own tables

Four states base the benefit on an after-tax or "spendable" wage, which depends on filing status and dependents:

• Michigan — the Workers' Disability Compensation Agency's annual Weekly Benefit Tables are conclusive by statute. We reproduce every one of the 80,000 printed cells (wages $1–$2,000 × 4 filing statuses × 10 dependent columns) for 2025 and 2026 exactly: the agency's published tax parameters reproduce each cell to within one cent, and a stored one-cent correction per cell makes the match exact. Above $2,000, where the book stops, the same published parameters are applied.
• Iowa — the Division's rate book (wages $1 up to $4,000–$4,500 by marital status and 1–10 exemptions) is embedded as published.
• Connecticut — the Commission's Weekly Benefit Tables (four filing statuses) are embedded as published, with the table's own minimum and maximum notes applied.
• Alaska — the Division no longer publishes tables; it publishes an online calculator. We port that calculator's method and its data file (withholding schedule, per-exemption allowance, FICA rate) for each injury year.

These tables load only when you choose one of those states, so other pages stay light. Wages are matched to the whole-dollar table row nearest your entry.

4. Dates: no silent cliffs

Rate periods have explicit start and end dates. The calculator picks the period containing your injury date (for Maine and Washington, whose maximum follows the payment year, the period containing today's date). When a date falls outside every verified period — for example an injury after a period ends but before the state publishes the next maximum — the calculator does not reuse the old figure. It switches to an explicit mode that asks you for the official maximum from your benefit notice and says why. Today 43 jurisdictions have a current period whose successor is not yet published; for District of Columbia, New Hampshire, Wyoming no current dollar figure could be verified at all, so the calculator always asks for it. An automated test fails our build 45 days before any rate period ends without a verified successor, so these hand-offs are planned, not discovered.

5. What the result includes — and leaves out

The result is the statutory temporary total disability rate, the daily equivalent, the effect of the waiting period on the days you enter, any statutory week limit, and — if you enter post-injury earnings and the state has a clean formula — the temporary partial rate. It does not include offsets (Social Security, unemployment, pensions), cost-of-living adjustments on long claims, permanent disability, death benefits, medical benefits, or the many wage-calculation disputes (overtime, second jobs, fringe benefits) that can change your average weekly wage.

6. Testing

Every jurisdiction has at least one unit test whose expected value is worked out by hand from the cited source and written in the test. Further tests cover zero, maximum and invalid inputs, the waiting-period logic, the Michigan, Iowa and Connecticut tables against sampled printed cells, and the date horizon. A browser test suite loads every state page, enters that state's test wage and checks the result, and confirms each page has one heading, a correct canonical address, breadcrumbs, no console errors and no horizontal scrolling on a phone-width screen. Build-time checks reject near-duplicate pages and broken search metadata.

Questions about a specific figure? Use the corrections form; see the editorial policy for how reports are handled.