How Much Does Workers’ Comp Pay in Florida? TTD, TPD, and PTD

Florida workers’ compensation pays 66⅔% of your pre-injury average weekly wage for most disability benefits, up to a maximum of $1,358 per week for injuries occurring in 2026.¹ How much workers’ comp pays in Florida in your specific case depends on what you were earning before the injury, which type of disability you’re classified under, and how long you remain unable to work at full capacity. Medical treatment for the injury is covered on top of that with no dollar limit.

The Wage Your Benefits Are Built On

Every check starts with your average weekly wage. Florida figures this by adding up your total gross earnings for the 13 calendar weeks immediately before the injury and dividing by 13.² Overtime and bonuses paid during that window count.³

You have to have worked at least 75% of the customary hours during those 13 weeks for this method to apply.² If you didn’t, the insurer can use the wages of a similar employee doing the same job. Seasonal workers who can show that a 13-week snapshot understates their real earnings may use a full 52 weeks instead, but they need W-2s, wage statements, or tax returns to prove it.

Why Your First Week Isn’t Paid

Florida pays no disability benefits for the first seven days you’re out of work. If your disability stretches past 21 days, the insurer has to go back and pay you for that first week retroactively.⁴ Medical care is covered from day one either way. This trips up workers who are out for a week or two and expect a check right away.

Temporary Total Disability: Fully Out of Work

If your injury keeps you completely off the job on a temporary basis, you get 66⅔% of your average weekly wage.⁵ So if you were making $1,200 a week before the injury, you’d draw about $800 a week. The weekly benefit can’t exceed $1,358 for 2026 injuries and can’t fall below $20.¹ The maximum resets every January based on the statewide average weekly wage.⁶

Temporary total disability tops out at 104 weeks. Once you hit that ceiling or reach maximum medical improvement, whichever comes first, temporary benefits end.⁵

Catastrophic injuries pay more. If you lose an arm, leg, hand, or foot, are paralyzed, or lose sight in both eyes, temporary total disability pays 80% of your average weekly wage for the first six months after the accident.⁵

Temporary Partial Disability: Back at Reduced Pay

When you return in a lighter-duty or reduced-hours role that pays less than before, you may qualify for temporary partial disability. The benefit equals 80% of the difference between 80% of your pre-injury average weekly wage and what you’re currently earning.

An example makes the formula easier to see. Say your average weekly wage was $1,000 and you’re now earning $500 in a light-duty role. Eighty percent of $1,000 is $800. The gap between $800 and $500 is $300, and 80% of that is $240 per week in temporary partial disability. Temporary partial and temporary total together share the same 104-week cap.

Permanent Impairment Benefits

Once your treating physician says you’ve reached maximum medical improvement, meaning further recovery isn’t expected, you receive an impairment rating. Florida uses the 1996 Florida Uniform Permanent Impairment Rating Schedule to assign a percentage that reflects the lasting effect of the injury.⁷

That percentage converts to a set number of weeks of benefits on a tiered schedule:⁸

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

Impairment benefits are paid at 75% of your temporary total disability rate.⁸ Take a worker with a 16% rating whose TTD rate was $600 per week. The impairment rate is 75% of $600, or $450 per week. The weeks work out to 10 points at 2 weeks (20), plus 5 points at 3 weeks (15), plus 1 point at 4 weeks (4), for a total of 39 weeks. That’s $17,550.

One catch: if you earn wages equal to or greater than your pre-injury average weekly wage during the impairment benefit period, your benefit is cut in half for each of those weeks.⁸

Permanent Total Disability

Permanent total disability is the most serious classification and pays 66⅔% of your average weekly wage for as long as the disability lasts, subject to the same annual maximum. Certain catastrophic injuries create a presumption of permanent total disability unless the employer proves you can perform sedentary work within 50 miles of your home:⁹

Spinal cord injuries causing severe paralysis of an arm, leg, or the trunk
Amputation resulting in effective loss of use of an arm, hand, foot, or leg
Severe brain or closed-head injuries
Second- or third-degree burns covering 25% or more of total body surface
Total or industrial blindness

For any other injury, the burden is on you to prove you can’t perform even sedentary work within 50 miles of your home. Permanent total disability benefits end when you turn 75, unless the compensable injury kept you from working enough quarters to qualify for Social Security.⁹

Death Benefits for Dependents

If a worker dies from a job-related injury or illness, Florida pays dependency benefits to surviving family. Total benefits across all dependents can’t exceed 66⅔% of the deceased worker’s average weekly wage, split by category:¹⁰

Spouse with no children: 50% of the average weekly wage, until death or remarriage
Spouse with children: 50% plus another 16⅔% for the children
Children with no surviving spouse: 33⅓% per child
Dependent parents: 25% each
Dependent siblings or grandchildren: 15% each

A surviving spouse who remarries gets a lump sum equal to 26 weeks of compensation at 50% of the average weekly wage instead of ongoing benefits. Dependency for children ends at 18, or 22 if they’re full-time students at an accredited school. Children physically or mentally unable to support themselves stay eligible indefinitely.¹⁰ The employer also has to pay actual funeral expenses as provided by statute.

Medical Care Has No Dollar Cap

Florida requires the employer or its carrier to furnish all medically necessary treatment for a work-related injury: doctor visits, hospital stays, prescriptions, durable medical equipment, prosthetics, and rehabilitation.¹¹ There is no dollar limit on authorized medical care, which is often the most valuable part of the benefit for workers with serious injuries.

The employer or carrier picks your initial treating physician. You’re entitled to request one change of doctor during treatment for any one accident, and the carrier has five days to authorize an alternative after receiving your written request. If it doesn’t, you can pick your own.

Chiropractic care has a built-in ceiling: 24 treatments or 12 weeks from the first chiropractic visit, whichever comes first, unless the carrier authorizes more or the injury is catastrophic.¹¹ Mileage to authorized appointments is reimbursable.

What Can Reduce Your Payout

A few practical factors shape how much you actually collect. Refusing authorized medical care or skipping appointments can lead to reduced or suspended benefits. The date of injury fixes which year’s maximum weekly rate applies, and that cap changes every January. Your ability to return to any form of work, even part-time or light-duty, moves you between benefit categories and often cuts the weekly check.

Workers tend to focus on the two-thirds wage-replacement figure and overlook the 104-week ceiling on temporary benefits. For injuries that need a long recovery, that window closes faster than people expect, and the drop to impairment benefits at 75% of the temporary rate is a real financial shift. Anticipating that transition before it hits is one of the more useful things you can do after a serious workplace injury.

1
Florida Department of Financial Services. Informational Bulletin – Maximum Workers’ Compensation Rate, Effective January 1, 2026
2
Justia Law. Florida Statutes 440.14 – Determination of Pay
3
Florida Department of Financial Services. Form DFS-F2-DWC-1a – Wage Statement
4
Justia Law. Florida Statutes 440.12 – Time for Commencement of Payments and Duration
5
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 440.15 – Compensation for Disability
6
Florida Department of Financial Services. Maximum Compensation Rate Table
7
Legal Information Institute. Florida Administrative Code R. 69L-7.604 – Permanent Impairment
8
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 440.15 – Compensation for Disability
9
Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 440.15 – Compensation for Disability
10
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 440.16 – Death Benefits
11
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 440.13 – Medical Services and Supplies