Workers’ compensation in South Carolina pays your medical bills and replaces about two-thirds of your lost wages when you’re hurt on the job, and you don’t have to prove your employer did anything wrong to collect. In exchange, you give up the right to sue your employer for pain and suffering. For injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2026, the maximum weekly wage-replacement benefit is $1,189.94. The system runs on strict deadlines and a few counterintuitive rules, so knowing how it actually works matters more than knowing it exists.
Who’s Covered
Almost every South Carolina business with four or more employees must carry workers’ compensation insurance, as must any business with a total annual payroll of $3,000 or more during the previous calendar year.1South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 42-1-360 – Exemption of Casual Employees and Certain Other Employments Part-time workers count the same as full-time.
Some workers fall outside the mandatory system. Casual employees whose jobs aren’t part of the employer’s regular business are exempt. Agricultural workers are exempt unless the employer voluntarily opts in. Licensed real estate agents working on straight commission under an independent contractor agreement are not covered. Railroad employees and federal workers have their own federal systems.2Workers’ Compensation Commission. Employer FAQs
The label on your paycheck isn’t the final word. The Commission looks at whether the business actually controls how and when you do the work. A contractor who’s treated like an employee may be entitled to coverage regardless of what the paperwork says.
What Injuries Qualify
To be covered, your injury has to “arise out of and in the course of” your employment. That means the job created the risk that hurt you, and it happened while you were doing your work or something reasonably connected to it.3South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Title 42 Chapter 1 – General Provisions Sudden accidents, repetitive-trauma injuries, and occupational diseases can all qualify.
Purely psychological injuries are much harder to claim. If there’s no accompanying physical injury, you have to prove your working conditions were extraordinary and unusual compared to the normal conditions of your type of work, backed by medical evidence tying the condition to those specific stressors. Stress from routine events like discipline, performance reviews, transfers, or termination doesn’t qualify, even when it feels genuinely disabling.
Report Your Injury Within 90 Days
You have 90 days from the date of the accident to tell your employer.4South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 42-15-20 – Notice to Employer of Accident or Repetitive Trauma Miss that window and you lose your right to benefits unless you can convince the Commission you had a reasonable excuse and the employer wasn’t harmed by the delay.
Don’t wait anywhere close to 90 days. The longer the gap, the easier it is for the insurance carrier to argue the injury didn’t really happen at work. Report it to someone with authority: a direct supervisor, a manager, or human resources. Telling a coworker over lunch doesn’t count. Put it in writing when you can, even a short follow-up email after a verbal conversation. That written record is what you’ll need if the employer later says they were never told.
Your Employer Picks the Doctor
This surprises most injured workers. In South Carolina, your employer has the right to select your treating physician, and you’re required to accept that care.5South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Title 42 Chapter 15 – Notice of Accident; Filing of Claims; Medical Attention and Examination Refuse the medical treatment the employer provides or the Commission orders, and your benefits stop until you cooperate.
You still have some leverage. If you believe the employer’s doctor isn’t providing adequate care, you can ask the Commission to order a change in physicians. You can bring your own doctor to any examination the employer schedules, though you cover that doctor’s time. And if you need emergency treatment and the employer hasn’t arranged care, you can see another provider and the employer must pay the reasonable cost.
All medical expenses tied to the work injury are the employer’s responsibility: doctor visits, hospital stays, surgery, prescriptions, physical therapy, and medical devices. Mileage to and from medical appointments is reimbursable too, and it’s commonly overlooked. Keep records of every appointment, every prescription, and every mile.
What You’ll Be Paid
Wage replacement across the different disability categories is 66⅔% of your average weekly wage, with a 2026 maximum of $1,189.94 per week and a minimum of $75.6Workers’ Compensation Commission. Compensation Rates There’s a seven-day waiting period before wage-replacement checks start. If your disability lasts more than 14 days, you’re paid retroactively for those first seven.
Temporary Total Disability
If you’re completely unable to work for a stretch but expected to recover, you receive temporary total disability at 66⅔% of your average weekly wage. These benefits can continue up to 500 weeks except in cases of permanent and total disability.7South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Title 42 Chapter 9 – Compensation for Disability or Death
Temporary Partial Disability
If you return to work at reduced hours or in a lighter-duty job that pays less, you get 66⅔% of the difference between your old average weekly wage and what you’re now earning. These benefits cap at 340 weeks from the date of injury.
Permanent Partial Disability (Scheduled Losses)
When you reach maximum medical improvement with lasting impairment, South Carolina uses a schedule that assigns a set number of weeks of compensation to each body part. You receive 66⅔% of your average weekly wage for the number of weeks listed:8South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 42-9-30 – Schedule of Period of Disability and Compensation
- Hand: 185 weeks
- Arm: 220 weeks
- Shoulder: 300 weeks
- Foot: 140 weeks
- Leg: 195 weeks
- Eye: 140 weeks
- Back (50% or more loss of use): 500 weeks
For partial impairment, benefits are proportional. A 30% impairment rating on your arm gets you 30% of the 220 weeks allotted for complete loss, or 66 weeks. A back impairment rating of 50% or more creates a rebuttable presumption of permanent total disability.
Permanent Total Disability
The loss of both hands, both arms, both feet, both legs, both eyes, or any combination of two such losses qualifies as permanent total disability, with benefits up to 500 weeks. Workers who are paraplegic, quadriplegic, or have suffered physical brain damage from the workplace injury receive benefits for life with no weekly cap.
Death Benefits
If a worker dies from a workplace injury, dependents receive 66⅔% of the deceased worker’s average weekly wage for up to 500 weeks. A surviving spouse who remarries gets a lump sum equal to two years of benefits, then payments stop. The employer also covers funeral and burial expenses.
How Your Average Weekly Wage Is Calculated
Every benefit amount depends on your average weekly wage, which makes getting the figure right one of the most important things in the process. The Commission takes the total wages your employer reported to the Department of Employment and Workforce for the four quarters immediately before the quarter of your injury, then divides by 52 or by the actual number of weeks you were paid, whichever gives the lower number.9South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 42-1-40 – Average Weekly Wages Defined
The quarter of the injury itself is excluded. Overtime and bonuses on those quarterly filings count. Pull your pay stubs early. Carriers routinely come in low on the wage figure, and you’ll need documentation to push back. The Commission verifies the number using Form 20 (Statement of Earnings).10South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission. Statement of Earnings of Injured Employee
Filing a Formal Claim With the Commission
Notifying your employer is not the same as filing a claim. These are two separate deadlines, and the one that trips people up is the second one. You have two years from the date of the accident to file a formal claim with the South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission. Miss that and you’re permanently barred, regardless of how serious the injury is.11South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 42-15-40 – Time for Filing Claim; Filing by Registered Mail
Timing works differently for a few injury types. For occupational diseases, the two-year clock doesn’t start until you’ve been definitively diagnosed and notified. For repetitive-trauma injuries, you have two years from when you knew or should have known the injury was work-related, with an outer limit of seven years from your last exposure.
The form is the Form 50 (Employee’s Notice of Claim and/or Request for Hearing).12South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 42-1-700 – Specificity of Description of Injured or Affected Body Parts Dependents of a worker who died from the injury file a Form 52 instead.13Workers’ Compensation Commission. Injured Worker FAQs Describe the injured body parts specifically. Vague descriptions like “whole body” slow the process and invite denials. If you’re requesting a hearing, there’s a $50 filing fee.14South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission. Form 50 – Employee’s Notice of Claim and/or Request for Hearing Keep a copy of your postmarked submission and the fee receipt as proof you met the deadline.
If Your Claim Is Denied
If the carrier denies your claim or disputes what’s owed, the Commission usually schedules an informal conference first.15Workers’ Compensation Commission. Informal Conference Many cases settle there. If not, the dispute goes to a hearing before a single Commissioner, which functions like a small trial with evidence, testimony, and medical records. The Commissioner issues a written Decision and Order.
If you disagree with that decision, you can appeal to an appellate panel of Commissioners by filing Form 30 (Request for Commission Review) with a $150 filing fee. The appeal must be postmarked within 14 days of receiving the decision, or the single Commissioner’s ruling becomes final.16Workers’ Compensation Commission. Single Commissioner Decision and Order After the panel rules, further appeals go to the South Carolina Court of Appeals and ultimately the Supreme Court. If you can’t afford the appeal fee, Form 32 lets you request a waiver.17South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission. Form 30 – Request for Commission Review
When Someone Other Than Your Employer Caused the Injury
Workers’ compensation is normally the only claim you have against your employer. But if someone else caused your injury, you can sue that third party and still collect workers’ comp. Common examples: a delivery driver hit by another motorist, or a construction worker hurt by defective equipment made by an outside manufacturer.
You have one year after the carrier accepts liability or makes a payment to file the third-party lawsuit. Miss that window (or the 30 days before the general statute of limitations expires) and the carrier can file the lawsuit itself.18RJR Law. Third Party Claims in SC Workers Compensation Cases The carrier also has a lien on whatever you recover: it gets reimbursed for every dollar of benefits it has paid, minus a proportional share of your attorney fees and costs, with any remainder offsetting future benefits. The upside is that a third-party suit lets you recover damages workers’ comp doesn’t cover, including pain and suffering.
If You’re Fired for Filing
South Carolina law prohibits your employer from firing or demoting you because you filed a workers’ compensation claim or testified in a proceeding. If they do, you can sue for lost wages and reinstatement. The burden of proof is on you, and you have one year from the retaliatory action to file.19South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Title 41 Chapter 1 – General Provisions
Employers have defenses available, including habitual tardiness, intoxication at work, destruction of company property, failure to meet established work standards, embezzlement, or violation of a specific written company policy where termination is the stated remedy. The statute also allows an employer to stop employing someone who has been found permanently and totally disabled without that counting as retaliation. The evidence that typically wins these cases is timing: termination shortly after filing, especially with a clean prior record. Save emails, write down what was said, and note how similarly situated coworkers were treated.
Attorney Fees
Attorney fees in South Carolina workers’ comp cases cannot exceed 33.3% of the total compensation recovered, and every fee has to be approved by the Commission before the attorney can collect.5South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Title 42 Chapter 15 – Notice of Accident; Filing of Claims; Medical Attention and Examination Collecting any fee without Commission approval is a misdemeanor punishable by up to $500, up to a year in jail, or both.
If the carrier was already paying some benefits before the attorney got involved, the fee is limited to 33.3% of the difference between what was originally offered and what the attorney secured.20Cornell Law Institute. South Carolina Code Regulations 67-1205 – Determining a Reasonable Fee Most workers’ comp attorneys work on contingency, so there’s nothing out of pocket upfront.
If Your Employer Has No Insurance
Employers who are supposed to carry coverage but don’t leave themselves badly exposed. South Carolina has an Uninsured Employers’ Fund that pays benefits to injured workers when their employer has no coverage, then recovers every dollar from the employer through a lien on its assets.21South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission. South Carolina Code of Laws Title 42 – Workers’ Compensation
Beyond the lien, uninsured employers lose the lawsuit immunity the workers’ comp system normally provides. If your employer should have been insured and wasn’t, you may be able to sue for the full range of damages, pain and suffering included, that workers’ comp would otherwise block.