New York Workers' Comp Settlement Calculator: Schedule Loss of Use

Where each number in the formula comes from

The award is weeks × percentage × weekly rate. Three inputs, and they are not equally negotiable.

The weeks are fixed by statute. Workers' Compensation Law § 15(3) assigns a number of weeks to each scheduled member — 312 for an arm, 244 for a hand, 46 for an index finger. No adjuster can change these and no lawyer can argue them up. They are the same for everyone.

The weekly rate is two-thirds of your average weekly wage, capped. The cap is reset each July by the Board and applies according to your date of injury. A 2022 injury is still capped at the 2022 rate today, however long the claim has taken. Current and historical rates are published in the Board's own schedule of maximum weekly benefits.

The percentage is the fight. It is a medical opinion, given after you reach maximum medical improvement, and your treating doctor and the carrier's examining doctor routinely produce different figures for the same limb. Because every other term is fixed, a dispute over ten percentage points on an arm is a dispute over 31.2 weeks of benefits — which is why these disagreements are worth taking seriously rather than splitting for convenience.

What this calculator cannot tell you

Whether your injury is scheduled at all. This is the most common misunderstanding about New York comp. The schedule covers extremities and senses. A back, neck, head or internal injury is not on it — those are handled as a classification for permanent partial disability, where benefits run on a capped number of weeks tied to your loss of wage-earning capacity rather than to a body part. If you were hurt in your spine, the number this page produces does not apply to you, and our page on light duty and work restrictions is closer to your situation.

What a Section 32 settlement would be. A schedule award is an entitlement calculated by formula. A Section 32 agreement is a negotiated full-and-final settlement that closes the claim, often including future medical, and it is a genuinely different thing with genuinely different arithmetic. A figure produced here is not an offer, a valuation, or a prediction of what a carrier will agree to.

Whether something is being missed. Two of them, usually: benefits already paid are credited against the award, so the check is smaller than the award; and if someone other than your employer contributed to the injury, a separate claim may exist that comp cannot pay for at all. See workers' comp versus personal injury.

A worked example

A warehouse worker earning $1,100 a week injures a hand, and after treatment is assessed at 25% loss of use.

• Hand: 244 weeks under § 15(3).
• At 25%: 61 weeks.
• Two-thirds of $1,100 is $733.33, which is below the cap, so that is the rate.
• 61 × $733.33 = $44,733, less any temporary benefits already paid.

Change the percentage to 35% and the award rises to roughly $62,627. Nothing else in the calculation moved. That is the whole reason permanency percentages are contested.

Common questions

How is a schedule loss of use award calculated in New York?

Weeks fixed by Workers' Compensation Law § 15(3) for the body part, multiplied by your percentage loss of use, multiplied by two-thirds of your average weekly wage — subject to the maximum weekly rate in force on your date of injury.

Is a back injury a schedule loss of use?

No. The schedule covers arms, legs, hands, feet, fingers, toes, eyes and hearing. Back, neck, head and internal injuries are classified for permanent partial disability instead, which uses a different calculation entirely.

Which maximum weekly rate applies to my claim?

The one in effect on your date of injury, not the current one. A claim from an earlier year stays capped at that year's rate no matter when it is finally paid.

Why is my check smaller than the award?

Temporary benefits paid while you were out during the healing period are normally credited against the schedule award, and Board-approved attorney fees are deducted from it.

Can I get a schedule award and still have a lawsuit?

Yes, if someone other than your employer contributed to the injury. Workers' compensation never pays for pain and suffering; a third-party claim can, and the two run alongside each other.

This page is general information about New York law. It is not legal advice, and reading it or using this calculator does not create an attorney-client relationship with Davidov & Cohen Law. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. To talk about your own situation, tell us what happened.