A Colorado workers’ comp settlement chart has two sides: a fixed schedule of weeks for injuries to arms, hands, legs, feet, fingers, toes, eyes, and teeth, and a separate whole person formula for the spine, head, neck, and trunk that multiplies your impairment rating by 400 weeks, your temporary total disability rate, and an age factor. Whichever formula applies, the final number is capped by statutory dollar limits that combine your temporary and permanent disability payments into a single ceiling. The sections below walk through each piece with the actual numbers so you can estimate where your claim lands.
The Scheduled Injury Chart
Colorado Revised Statutes § 8-42-107 assigns a fixed number of benefit weeks to the total loss of specific body parts. The most commonly cited entries:1Justia. Colorado Code 8-42-107 – Permanent Partial Disability Benefits – Schedule – Medical Impairment Benefits – How Determined
- Arm at the shoulder: 208 weeks
- Hand below the wrist: 104 weeks
- Thumb (proximal joint): 35 weeks
- Index finger (proximal joint): 18 weeks
- Leg at the hip: 208 weeks
- Foot below the ankle: 104 weeks
- Great toe (proximal joint): 18 weeks
- Total blindness in one eye: listed separately in the statute
- One tooth: 6 weeks
Those numbers are for total loss. Partial losses, which is almost everything, multiply the week count by your impairment rating percentage.
The weekly rate for scheduled injuries starts at a statutory base of $176 per week and gets adjusted each July 1 by the same percentage change in the state average weekly wage.1Justia. Colorado Code 8-42-107 – Permanent Partial Disability Benefits – Schedule – Medical Impairment Benefits – How Determined It does not vary with your personal wages. Every worker with a scheduled injury in a given benefit year uses the same per-week number, and you can confirm the current figure on the Division of Workers’ Compensation’s desk aids for your date of injury.
A simplified example. Assume the adjusted weekly rate is $300 and you have a 10% impairment of the hand. The hand carries 104 weeks on the schedule. Multiply 104 by 10% to get 10.4 weeks, then multiply 10.4 by $300. The award is $3,120.
Whole Person Impairment for Spine, Head, Neck, or Trunk
Injuries that are not on the schedule use a different calculation that generally produces much larger awards. The formula is:1Justia. Colorado Code 8-42-107 – Permanent Partial Disability Benefits – Schedule – Medical Impairment Benefits – How Determined
Impairment rating (%) × 400 weeks × temporary total disability rate × age factor
The 400 weeks is a statutory constant. The temporary total disability rate is 66⅔% of your average weekly wage, capped at 91% of the state average weekly wage.2Justia. Colorado Code 8-42-105 – Temporary Total Disability The age factor runs on a sliding scale, with younger workers getting a higher multiplier:1Justia. Colorado Code 8-42-107 – Permanent Partial Disability Benefits – Schedule – Medical Impairment Benefits – How Determined
- Age 20 or younger: 1.80
- Age 25: 1.70
- Age 30: 1.60
- Age 35: 1.50
- Age 40: 1.40
- Age 45: 1.30
- Age 50: 1.20
- Age 55: 1.10
- Age 60 or older: 1.00
The factor drops 0.02 for each year of age between the benchmarks.
A 40-year-old with a 15% whole person impairment and a $700 TTD rate: 0.15 × 400 × $700 × 1.40 = $58,800. Same injury, same wages, but a 55-year-old worker: the age factor falls to 1.10 and the award drops to $46,200. That $12,600 swing from age alone is one of the most contested variables in settlement talks.
Weekly whole person payments have a floor of $150 and a ceiling of 50% of the state average weekly wage.1Justia. Colorado Code 8-42-107 – Permanent Partial Disability Benefits – Schedule – Medical Impairment Benefits – How Determined A TTD rate below $150 gets bumped up; one above the ceiling gets capped.
The Combined Dollar Caps
Whatever the formulas produce, Colorado puts hard dollar limits on the combined total of temporary disability and permanent partial disability payments. The base statutory caps are $185,000 for impairment ratings of 19% or less and $300,000 for ratings above 19%.3Justia. Colorado Code 8-42-107.5 – Limit on Temporary Disability Payments and Permanent Partial Disability Payments
For injuries on or after January 1, 2025, the Director of the Division of Workers’ Compensation adjusts the caps annually against the state average weekly wage.3Justia. Colorado Code 8-42-107.5 – Limit on Temporary Disability Payments and Permanent Partial Disability Payments As of the 2025 adjustment, the caps are $192,996.79 for impairment ratings of 19% or less and $312,967.77 for ratings of 20% or higher.4Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. 2025 Max Benefits Order Check the Division’s current Max Benefits Order for the figure that applies to your injury date.
These caps bundle temporary and permanent benefits into one ceiling. Heavy temporary payments during a long recovery eat into what is left for the permanent award, and workers who spent many months on TTD before reaching maximum medical improvement sometimes find the permanent portion of their settlement sharply reduced for that reason.
The Impairment Rating That Drives Every Number
None of the math starts until your authorized treating physician declares you have reached Maximum Medical Improvement, the point where further treatment will not significantly improve your condition.5Colorado Department of Labor & Employment. Get Medical Care MMI triggers the permanent impairment evaluation, which has to follow the American Medical Association Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, Third Edition (Revised). Colorado is one of the few states still using that older edition.6Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Division of Workers’ Compensation Level II Accreditation Course Curriculum The percentage the physician assigns drives every dollar in your settlement.
If the rating looks too low, you can challenge it through a Division Independent Medical Examination. After the insurer files its Final Admission of liability, you have 30 days to object and apply for a DIME.7Colorado Department of Labor & Employment. Independent Medical Opinions in Workers’ Compensation Miss that window and you lock in whatever rating the insurer’s physician gave. Treat it as a hard deadline. A DIME rating carries presumptive weight, and the insurer has to overcome it by clear and convincing evidence to change it, which is why the DIME is one of the strongest tools an underrated worker has.
Permanent Total Disability
If the injury leaves you unable to earn wages in any employment, you may qualify for permanent total disability instead. The rate is 66⅔% of your average weekly wage, paid for life, subject to the same weekly maximum that applies to TTD.8Justia. Colorado Code 8-42-111 – Award for Permanent Total Disability
One catch costs people lifetime benefits: if you are capable of vocational rehabilitation that would let you earn wages and you refuse an offer of rehabilitation paid for by the employer, you lose PTD eligibility.8Justia. Colorado Code 8-42-111 – Award for Permanent Total Disability Take any rehab offer or reasonable job offer seriously, even if the position feels like a step down.
What a Full and Final Settlement Closes Out
The dollar figure on a settlement check is only half the picture. The other half is which rights you are giving up to get it. A full and final settlement typically closes your right to future medical treatment, further wage replacement, and any later reopening of the claim. Reversing an approved settlement is extremely difficult.
The medical piece matters most. Reaching MMI does not necessarily end your right to care; your doctor can recommend maintenance treatment to keep your condition from deteriorating, and Colorado allows ongoing insurer-funded medical care after MMI when it is reasonably needed to maintain your status.5Colorado Department of Labor & Employment. Get Medical Care If you sign away medical benefits, you absorb that cost. For a back injury that needs periodic injections or physical therapy to stay manageable, the lifetime cost of maintenance care can exceed the extra cash the insurer offered to close it out.
You do not have to settle to get a lump sum. You can request up to $10,000 of a permanent partial disability award as an automatic lump-sum advance, which the insurer must pay on written request, reduced by a statutory discount for early payment.1Justia. Colorado Code 8-42-107 – Permanent Partial Disability Benefits – Schedule – Medical Impairment Benefits – How Determined The rest continues as weekly payments. That lets you access cash without closing the claim.
Offsets and Deductions That Shrink the Check
Three things routinely eat into what the formulas suggest you should receive.
SSDI offset. If you receive both workers’ compensation and Social Security Disability Insurance, the combined total cannot exceed 80% of your average current earnings before the disability. Anything above that comes out of your SSDI. A lump-sum settlement can trigger the offset too, because Social Security may prorate it over your expected remaining benefit period. The reduction runs until you hit full retirement age or the other benefits stop, whichever comes first.9Social Security Administration. How Workers’ Compensation and Other Disability Payments May Affect Your Benefits Settlements can be structured to soften this, so get professional advice before signing if you draw SSDI.
Medicare set-aside. If you are already on Medicare or expect to enroll within 30 months, CMS guidelines recommend setting aside part of the settlement for future injury-related care. CMS reviews proposed Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Aside arrangements when a current Medicare beneficiary’s total settlement exceeds $25,000, or when expected enrollment within 30 months is paired with a total settlement over $250,000. The set-aside has to be spent on injury-related treatment before Medicare pays for any.10Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set Aside Arrangements A $100,000 settlement with a $30,000 set-aside leaves $70,000 in your hands.
Taxes. Workers’ compensation benefits, including lump-sum settlements, are fully exempt from federal income tax under 26 U.S.C. § 104.11Internal Revenue Service. Publication 525 (2025), Taxable and Nontaxable Income12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 104 – Compensation for Injuries or Sickness Two exceptions trip people up. Wages for light-duty work after you return are taxable like any other salary. And the portion of your workers’ comp that reduces SSDI through the offset is treated as Social Security income and may be partially taxable.