Florida Workers’ Comp Settlement Chart: Weeks, Rates, and Deadlines

A Florida workers’ comp settlement chart starts with a statutory formula: your permanent impairment rating is converted into a set number of benefit weeks, paid at 75% of your temporary total disability rate. That number is the floor, not the finish line. At an average weekly wage of $900 (a $450 weekly impairment benefit rate), the statutory payouts look like this:

5% rating: 10 weeks × $450 = $4,500
10% rating: 20 weeks × $450 = $9,000
15% rating: 35 weeks × $450 = $15,750
20% rating: 55 weeks × $450 = $24,750
25% rating: 85 weeks × $450 = $38,250

Most actual settlements run higher than these figures because the insurer is also paying to close out future medical care, remaining wage-loss exposure, and litigation risk. The chart tells you the minimum a fair offer should reflect.

How the Weeks Per Percentage Point Work

For injuries on or after October 1, 2003, Florida assigns benefit weeks on a tiered schedule:¹

1% to 10% impairment: 2 weeks per percentage point
11% to 15%: 3 weeks per percentage point
16% to 20%: 4 weeks per percentage point
21% and above: 6 weeks per percentage point

The tiers stack. A 15% rating is not 45 weeks. You get 20 weeks for the first 10 points (10 × 2) plus 15 weeks for points 11 through 15 (5 × 3), for 35 weeks total. A 25% rating adds another 20 weeks for the 16–20 range (5 × 4) and 30 weeks for the 21–25 range (5 × 6), landing at 85 weeks.

How the Weekly Dollar Figure Is Built

Each impairment week pays 75% of your temporary total disability rate.¹ Your TTD rate is 66.67% of your average weekly wage.² The two layers together mean your impairment check is roughly half of your pre-injury weekly pay.

The average weekly wage sits under everything. The insurer looks at your gross earnings during the 13 calendar weeks before your accident, excluding the week the injury happened, and divides by 13. Overtime, bonuses, and tips count if they were reported to the IRS. Earnings from a concurrent second job count too. If you didn’t work substantially all of those 13 weeks (at least 75% of customary hours), the insurer can substitute a similar employee’s wages.³

Employer-paid fringe benefits like health insurance can also enter the calculation. When the employer stops providing those benefits after the injury, the statute requires a corrected wage statement reflecting both the wages and the fringe benefits.³ A higher average weekly wage pushes every number on the chart upward, so this figure is worth challenging if it looks light.

Why Real Settlements Beat the Chart

Carriers settle because keeping the claim open costs more than paying you today. Several factors routinely push offers past the statutory weeks:

Future medical costs. Surgeries, prescriptions, and ongoing therapy that you would otherwise receive through the claim get priced into the lump sum. A single spinal fusion can add tens of thousands of dollars.
Lost earning capacity. If the injury keeps you from returning to your former occupation, the gap between pre-injury earnings and expected future earnings becomes a negotiating point.
Remaining temporary total disability weeks. Florida caps TTD at 104 weeks. Unused weeks at the time of settlement become part of the negotiation.¹
Severity and body part. Spine, brain, and dominant-hand injuries typically settle higher than soft-tissue claims at the same rating, because long-term treatment costs and functional limits are greater.
Age and work-life expectancy. A 30-year-old with a permanent impairment faces more years of lost wages and medical care than a 60-year-old with the same injury, and offers reflect that.

Workers who accept the first offer based on the impairment formula alone routinely leave money on the table. The carrier has already modeled the future cost of the claim. The chart is the starting point of your side of that same math.

When the Rating Gets Assigned

The formula cannot be applied until your treating doctor determines you have reached maximum medical improvement, meaning your condition has stabilized and no further significant recovery is expected. At MMI, the doctor assigns a permanent impairment rating using the Florida Uniform Permanent Impairment Rating Schedule.⁴ That whole-body percentage drives the benefit weeks and becomes the anchor of any settlement discussion. Settling before MMI means guessing at both the rating and future medical costs, which almost always favors the insurer.

If you believe the rating is too low, Florida law lets you obtain an independent medical examination. Each side is limited to one per accident, and the party requesting the exam pays for it; the carrier reimburses your costs if a successful challenge follows.⁵

What the Settlement Actually Buys

Florida settlements come in two forms, and the type determines how much the check should be.

A washout settlement, sometimes called a full and final release, closes everything. You take a lump sum and release the employer and insurer from all future obligations, including medical care for the injury. If your condition worsens later, that cost is yours. Washouts produce higher dollar figures because the carrier is buying out its entire future exposure.

A stipulated settlement resolves the indemnity (wage-replacement) portion of the claim but leaves future medical benefits open. You get paid for the impairment and lost wages, and the insurer stays responsible for authorized treatment. The lump sum is smaller because the carrier keeps the medical risk. This structure suits injuries with significant, unpredictable future care needs.

Choosing between the two is one of the most consequential decisions in the case. The bigger washout check looks attractive until a surgery three years later comes out of your pocket.

What Comes Out of the Gross Number

The figure on the chart and the deposit that hits your account are rarely the same. Several items get pulled out first.

Attorney fees follow a statutory sliding scale, capped by law and approved by the judge of compensation claims:⁶

First $5,000: 20%
Next $5,000: 15%
Remaining benefits within the first 10 years after the claim is filed: 10%
Benefits after 10 years: 5%

On a $50,000 settlement, the maximum fee is $5,750: $1,000 on the first $5,000, $750 on the next $5,000, and $4,000 on the remaining $40,000.

Liens come out too. Unpaid child support can absorb up to half of your net recovery. Medicare has a right to recover conditional payments it made for injury-related treatment while the claim was pending, and state Medicaid can assert a lien for care it covered. Unresolved liens can delay approval of the agreement until a repayment plan is in place.

If you are already on Medicare or expect to enroll within 30 months, a Medicare Set-Aside protects Medicare’s future interest in injury-related care. CMS will review a proposed set-aside amount when a current beneficiary settles for more than $25,000, or when an expected future beneficiary settles for more than $250,000.⁷ Submission is technically voluntary, but if Medicare later finds its interests were not protected, it can refuse to pay for injury-related treatment until you spend down settlement funds equal to what the set-aside should have been.⁸

One piece of good news on the net side: workers’ compensation settlement payments for physical injuries are not taxable federal income, whether you take a lump sum or periodic payments.⁹ Interest earned after you deposit the lump sum is taxable like any other investment income.

The Deadline That Ends the Chart

Florida gives you two years from the date you knew or should have known your injury was work-related to file a petition for benefits.¹⁰ Payment of indemnity benefits or authorized medical treatment extends the deadline by one year from the last payment or treatment. When benefits stop, that one-year clock starts running immediately. Once it expires, the chart no longer applies to you, because the right to file or settle is gone.

1
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 440.15 – Compensation for Disability
2
Florida Department of Financial Services. Temporary Total Disability Benefit Calculator
3
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 440.14 – Determination of Pay
4
Legal Information Institute. Florida Code 69L-7.604 – Permanent Impairment
5
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 440.13 – Medical Services and Supplies
6
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 440.34 – Attorney Fees; Costs
7
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set Aside Arrangements
8
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. WCMSA Reference Guide Version 4.4
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 104 – Compensation for Injuries or Sickness
10
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 440.19 – Limitation of Time for Filing Petition for Benefits