How Much Does Workers’ Comp Pay in Arizona? Wages, Disability, Death

Arizona workers’ compensation pays 66 and two-thirds percent of your average monthly wage while a job injury keeps you off work. For injuries in 2026, the wage figure used in that calculation is capped at $6,131 per month, so the maximum monthly check comes out to about $4,087.¹ On top of that wage replacement, the system covers all reasonable medical treatment, pays separate awards for permanent impairment, and provides monthly death benefits to surviving family. You don’t have to prove your employer did anything wrong to collect.

The Wage Figure Everything Is Built On

Every dollar amount in your claim comes back to one number: your average monthly wage, or AMW. Under A.R.S. § 23-1041, the Industrial Commission of Arizona (ICA) looks at what you earned during the calendar month you were injured. If you hadn’t worked a full 30 days before the injury, the ICA estimates your earning capacity by looking at what similar workers in the same job and area typically make.²

Regular wages and bonuses count. Tips generally don’t. Overtime is handled separately and can be left out if your employer’s payroll tracks it individually.

Arizona also sets an annual ceiling on the AMW. For injuries occurring between January 1 and December 31, 2026, the cap is $6,131.00. If your real paycheck was bigger, the math still treats you as earning the cap, which is why no monthly disability check in Arizona exceeds roughly $4,087 for a 2026 injury.¹

Pay While You’re Recovering

If your doctor takes you off work entirely, you get Temporary Total Disability (TTD): two-thirds of your AMW, paid monthly, for as long as you can’t work. At the 2026 cap, that’s about $4,087 a month. Lower wages produce proportionally lower checks.²

If you can do light duty or part-time work but earn less than before, you move to Temporary Partial Disability (TPD). TPD pays two-thirds of the gap between your pre-injury wage and what you’re bringing in now. Say your AMW was $4,000 and you’re earning $2,000 on restricted duty. The $2,000 difference produces a TPD check of about $1,333 per month.

Both benefits keep running until your doctor releases you to full duty or decides you’ve reached maximum medical improvement, meaning more treatment isn’t likely to help.

Arizona doesn’t pay for the first seven days of lost time. If your disability stretches past seven days, those first days get paid retroactively once the ICA orders benefits to start.³

Permanent Disability Awards

When you reach maximum medical improvement with lasting limitations, A.R.S. § 23-1044 provides a separate award. How it’s calculated depends on what part of you was hurt.

Scheduled Injuries

Arms, legs, hands, feet, fingers, toes, and eyes each have a fixed number of months of benefits assigned by statute. You receive two-thirds of your AMW for each of those months. Losing a dominant arm pays 60 months of benefits; a non-dominant arm pays 50. Partial loss pays a proportional share: a 40 percent impairment of a dominant arm produces 24 months of benefits.⁴

Unscheduled Injuries

Injuries to the back, hip, head, or internal organs aren’t on the schedule. Instead, the ICA measures how much earning capacity you’ve lost by comparing what you could earn before with what you can realistically earn now, taking into account the local job market, your age, education, and physical restrictions. The percentage of lost earning capacity sets your monthly benefit, and in severe cases those payments can continue for the rest of your working life.⁴

Medical Treatment and Travel

Reasonable and necessary medical care for your work injury is fully covered at no cost to you. That includes hospital stays, surgery, prescriptions, physical therapy, prosthetics, and other supplies your doctor says you need, both during recovery and after.⁵

If you have to travel more than 25 miles from home for medical appointments, you can claim mileage. As of early 2025, Arizona reimburses personal-vehicle travel at 67 cents per mile. Keep a log with the date, destination, and round-trip distance for each visit so your reimbursement requests match the records.⁶

Death Benefits for Surviving Family

When a work injury or occupational illness kills a worker, A.R.S. § 23-1046 provides ongoing monthly support to family members. What they receive depends on who survives.

A surviving spouse with no children receives two-thirds of the deceased worker’s AMW each month, paid until the spouse dies or remarries.
A surviving spouse with children receives 35 percent of the AMW, and the children share another 31 and two-thirds percent, split equally. A child’s share runs until age 18, or up to age 22 if the child is a full-time student at an accredited school. A child over 18 who cannot support themselves keeps receiving benefits.

If the surviving spouse remarries, monthly payments end and the spouse receives a lump sum equal to two years of benefits.⁷

The insurance carrier also pays up to $5,000 for burial and funeral expenses on top of the monthly death benefits.⁷

What You Actually Take Home

The dollar amounts above are what Arizona pays. Three things affect what lands in your account.

Federal taxes don’t. Workers’ compensation benefits for a workplace injury or occupational illness are exempt from federal income tax, and that exemption extends to survivors collecting death benefits. If you later start drawing a disability pension based on age or years of service instead of the injury itself, that pension income is taxable.⁸

Attorney fees are capped. If you hire a lawyer, Arizona limits the fee to 25 percent of your award. For installment awards, no more than 25 percent of any single payment can be taken for the fee. In cases based solely on lost earning capacity, that 25 percent cap runs for up to five years from the date of the final award.⁹

And the first week of lost work isn’t paid unless your time off runs longer than seven days, in which case those days get added back retroactively.³

1
Industrial Commission of Arizona. Claims – AMW Statutory Maximum Information Page
2
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 23-1041 – Basis for Computing Compensation; Definition
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 23-1061 – Notice of Accident; Form of Notice; Claim for Compensation
4
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 23-1044 – Compensation for Partial Disability; Computation
5
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 23-1062 – Medical, Surgical and Hospital Benefits
6
Industrial Commission of Arizona. ICA Claims Adjusting Manual
7
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 23-1046 – Death Benefits
8
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 525 – Taxable and Nontaxable Income
9
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 23-1069 – Attorney Fees; Payment; Time Limitation