You can keep working while on workers’ comp in California, as long as the work stays inside your treating doctor’s medical restrictions and you report every hour and every dollar to your claims administrator. What changes is the size of your benefit check: earnings from modified duty, alternative work, or a second job reduce your temporary disability payments, and in some cases end them. Hiding the work is a separate problem entirely, and a serious one.
How Your Earnings Change Your Temporary Disability Check
Temporary disability replaces lost wages while you heal. If you cannot work at all, you receive temporary total disability at two-thirds of your average weekly earnings before the injury.1California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 4653 – Disability Payments For injuries in 2026, the weekly maximum is $1,764.11.2California Department of Industrial Relations. DWC Announces Temporary Total Disability Rates for 2026
Return to work in a lighter role at reduced pay and you shift to temporary partial disability. That payment is two-thirds of the difference between your old weekly wages and your current earnings.3California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 4654 If you were earning $1,500 a week and now bring home $900 on modified duty, the $600 gap produces a $400 partial TD check. Any unemployment benefits you collect during that same period reduce the partial TD payment dollar for dollar.
Return to full duty at your pre-injury wages and temporary disability stops. There is no wage loss left to replace.
Modified Work and Alternative Work: What Your Employer Can Offer
California law recognizes two types of accommodated jobs. Modified work is your regular position adjusted so you can perform every function within your medical limitations. Alternative work is a different position with the same employer that your body can handle. Both have to pay at least 85 percent of your pre-injury wages and sit within a reasonable commuting distance from your home.4California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 4658.1 – Disability Payments
The commuting-distance requirement can be waived, and it is automatically waived if you accept the offered job and don’t object to the location within 20 days.
What Happens If You Turn Down a Modified-Duty Offer
This is where injured workers get into trouble. If your employer offers modified or alternative work that genuinely fits your doctor’s restrictions and clears the 85-percent wage floor, declining it can cut off your temporary disability for the period you refuse.
Not every refusal is unreasonable. If the offered job ignores your restrictions, pays well below the 85-percent threshold, or requires an unreasonable commute, you have grounds to decline. The employer bears the burden of proving the offer met the legal requirements.4California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 4658.1 – Disability Payments Get any offer in writing, review it with your treating physician, and respond in writing if the duties don’t actually match your limitations.
Working for a Different Employer
Nothing in California law prohibits taking work with a completely different employer while your claim is open. Your treating physician’s restrictions still govern what you are allowed to do, and the earnings still count against your temporary disability check the same way wages from modified duty would.
You Must Report Every Hour and Every Dollar
There is no soft way to put this. Any person who knowingly makes a false or fraudulent material statement to obtain workers’ compensation benefits is guilty of a felony under California law.5Justia. California Labor Code 4900-4909.1 – Section 4906 That covers failing to disclose that you’re earning money, underreporting hours, and misrepresenting what you can physically do.
The penalties are heavy. Workers’ comp fraud can carry up to five years in prison, fines up to $150,000 or double the value of the fraud (whichever is greater), and mandatory restitution for any medical treatment or evaluations obtained through the fraud. A prior fraud conviction adds a two-year sentence enhancement.6California Legislative Information. California Insurance Code INS 1871.4 Civil penalties of $4,000 to $10,000 per violation can stack on top of the criminal case.7California Legislative Information. California Labor Code – Chapter 4, Article 5
Investigators routinely conduct surveillance on open claims. A weekend side job you didn’t mention can become a prosecution. Report work promptly to your claims administrator, in writing, and keep copies.
How Long Temporary Disability Can Last
Even if you never return to work, temporary disability isn’t indefinite. For most injuries, payments cap at 104 weeks within five years of the date of injury. A short list of severe conditions extends the cap to 240 weeks: amputations, severe burns, chronic lung disease, HIV, and hepatitis B or C.8California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 4656 – Disability Payments Once you hit the cap, TD ends whether you’ve recovered or not.
If You Also Receive SSDI
When Social Security Disability Insurance runs alongside workers’ comp, the combined payments cannot exceed 80 percent of your average earnings before you became disabled. Anything over that threshold comes out of your SSDI check, not your workers’ comp.9Social Security Administration. How Workers’ Compensation and Other Disability Payments May Affect Your Benefits The offset continues until you reach full retirement age or your workers’ comp stops.
If you want to test part-time work while on SSDI, Social Security allows a nine-month trial work period during which you can earn any amount without losing SSDI. In 2026, any month you earn over $1,210 before taxes counts as one trial month. The months don’t need to be consecutive; they just have to fall within a rolling five-year window.10Social Security Administration. Try Returning to Work Without Losing Disability
After Your Condition Becomes Permanent and Stationary
Permanent disability benefits aren’t tied directly to your current paycheck. They’re based on a disability rating that reflects how much the injury limits your long-term earning capacity. Your employer’s return-to-work response still affects the size of those payments at employers with 50 or more employees. If modified or alternative work is offered within 60 days of your condition becoming permanent and stationary, your remaining PD payments drop by 15 percent. If no offer comes within 60 days, PD payments rise by 15 percent.11California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 4658 – Disability Payments
If your employer doesn’t offer regular, modified, or alternative work after your disability becomes permanent, you may qualify for a supplemental job displacement voucher. The voucher pays for retraining, skill enhancement, tuition, fees, and books at approved schools.12California Legislative Information. California Code LAB 4658.5 – Disability Payments For injuries from 2004 through 2012, voucher amounts run from $4,000 to $10,000 depending on your permanent partial disability rating. For more recent injuries, the voucher is $6,000. It expires two years after it’s issued or five years after the injury date, whichever is later.