Florida workers’ compensation pays most injured employees 66.67% of their average weekly wage before the injury, up to a maximum of $1,358 per week for injuries occurring in 2026.1Florida Department of Financial Services. Maximum Compensation Rate 2026 Informational Bulletin On top of that wage replacement check, the insurance carrier pays your medical bills directly, so authorized treatment costs you nothing. How much you actually receive depends on the severity of your injury, whether you can do any work at all, and how long you’re out.
How Your Weekly Check Is Calculated
The starting number is your Average Weekly Wage, or AWW. Florida adds up your total earnings from the 13 weeks immediately before the injury and divides by 13.2Florida Department of Financial Services. Average Weekly Wage Calculation If you worked fewer than 13 weeks at that job, the calculation uses only the weeks you actually worked.
“Wages” for this purpose goes beyond base pay. It includes earnings reported for federal income tax purposes at the job where you were injured, earnings from a concurrent job that also carried workers’ compensation coverage, the reasonable value of employer-provided housing if it’s your year-round residence, reported taxable tips, and employer contributions to your health insurance.3Florida Senate. Florida Code Chapter 440 – Workers Compensation Earnings from side jobs without workers’ comp coverage don’t count.
Once the AWW is set, the standard weekly benefit is 66.67% of that figure, capped at the statewide maximum for the year of injury. For 2026 injuries, the cap is $1,358.1Florida Department of Financial Services. Maximum Compensation Rate 2026 Informational Bulletin If your AWW is $3,000, two-thirds would be $2,000, but the check is $1,358.
Temporary Total Disability
Temporary Total Disability, or TTD, is what you receive when your authorized doctor says you can’t work at all while you heal. The rate is 66.67% of your AWW. Payments continue until the doctor releases you to work, you reach Maximum Medical Improvement (the point where your condition has stabilized), or you hit the 104-week cap, whichever comes first.4Justia Law. Florida Code 440.15 – Compensation for Disability
Catastrophic injuries pay a higher temporary rate. If you lose an arm, leg, hand, or foot, become paraplegic or quadriplegic, or lose sight in both eyes, the rate is 80% of your AWW for the first six months after the accident. After six months, it drops back to 66.67%.4Justia Law. Florida Code 440.15 – Compensation for Disability
Temporary Partial Disability
If the doctor releases you to work with restrictions and you return to a light-duty role that pays less than you earned before, Temporary Partial Disability makes up part of the shortfall. The formula: take 80% of your AWW, subtract what you’re actually earning, then multiply the difference by 80%.5Florida Department of Financial Services. Temporary Partial Disability Benefit Calculator
Say your AWW was $1,000. Eighty percent is $800. If you’re earning $500 a week on light duty, the gap is $300, and 80% of that is $240. That $240 is your weekly TPD supplement. TPD weeks and TTD weeks share the same 104-week combined ceiling, and benefits end at Maximum Medical Improvement if that comes first.5Florida Department of Financial Services. Temporary Partial Disability Benefit Calculator
Permanent Impairment Benefits
When you reach Maximum Medical Improvement, your doctor assigns a Permanent Impairment Rating as a percentage of whole-body function lost. That number sets how many weeks of impairment benefits you get. Ratings from 1% to 10% pay two weeks per percentage point, so a 6% rating produces 12 weeks of payments; higher ratings pay more weeks per point on a tiered schedule.4Justia Law. Florida Code 440.15 – Compensation for Disability
The weekly rate is 75% of your TTD amount, subject to the same statewide maximum. Payments begin the day after MMI or the day after temporary benefits expire, whichever is earlier. If you’re earning at or above your pre-injury wage while receiving impairment benefits, the weekly amount drops by half.4Justia Law. Florida Code 440.15 – Compensation for Disability
Permanent Total Disability
Permanent Total Disability, or PTD, is the largest wage replacement benefit Florida offers and the hardest to qualify for. You must show that you cannot perform even sedentary work within 50 miles of your home. The weekly rate is 66.67% of your AWW, and there is no 104-week ceiling; payments continue for the duration of the disability.4Justia Law. Florida Code 440.15 – Compensation for Disability
Certain injuries create a legal presumption of permanent total disability, shifting the burden to the carrier to prove otherwise. These include severe spinal cord injuries with paralysis, amputation of an arm, hand, foot, or leg, severe brain injuries, second- or third-degree burns over 25% or more of the body (or third-degree burns to 5% or more of the face and hands), and total blindness.6Florida Senate. Florida Code 440.15 – Compensation for Disability
PTD benefits generally stop at age 75. If the injury happened after age 70, benefits are limited to five years after the PTD determination. An exception applies for workers who couldn’t accumulate enough Social Security work credits because of the injury.4Justia Law. Florida Code 440.15 – Compensation for Disability
Death Benefits for Dependents
When a work injury or illness kills the worker, Florida pays benefits to dependents as a percentage of the worker’s AWW. A surviving spouse with no children receives 50%. A spouse with children receives 50% plus an extra 16.67% for the children. Children with no surviving spouse each receive 33.33%. Dependent parents each receive 25%, and dependent siblings or grandchildren each receive 15%.7Florida Senate. Florida Code 440.16 – Death Benefits
The total across all dependents cannot exceed 66.67% of the worker’s AWW and is subject to a statutory dollar cap. The employer also pays funeral expenses. A child’s dependency ends at 18, or at 22 if enrolled full-time in an accredited school, or upon marriage. A surviving spouse who remarries receives a lump sum equal to 26 weeks of benefits in place of continuing payments.
Medical Bills and Mileage
The insurance carrier pays for all medically necessary treatment tied to your work injury: doctor visits, surgery, medication, physical therapy, durable medical equipment, prosthetics, and referred work-hardening or accredited pain-management programs.8Florida Senate. Florida Code 440.13 – Medical Services and Supplies Payments go directly to providers. You owe no copays, deductibles, or other out-of-pocket amounts for authorized care. Chiropractic care is capped at 24 visits or 12 weeks from the first chiropractic treatment, whichever comes first, unless the carrier authorizes more or you have a catastrophic injury.
The carrier also reimburses your mileage to and from authorized medical appointments at $0.445 per mile.9Florida Department of Financial Services. Claimants FAQs
The Seven-Day Waiting Period
Florida pays no wage replacement for the first seven days of disability. Medical care is covered from day one, but the checks start later.10Justia Law. Florida Code 440.12 – Time for Commencement and Limits on Weekly Rate of Compensation If your disability runs longer than 21 days, the carrier pays you retroactively for those first seven days.
Once the employer reports the injury to the carrier, the carrier has 14 calendar days to pay the first installment or deny the claim, assuming disability is continuous for eight or more days.11FindLaw. Florida Code 440.20 – Payment of Compensation After the first check, payments come every two weeks by direct deposit or prepaid card. A carrier that isn’t sure the claim is valid can pay and investigate for up to 120 days; failing to deny within that window generally waives the right to challenge compensability later.
Taxes and the Social Security Offset
Florida workers’ compensation checks are not subject to federal income tax. Amounts paid under a workers’ compensation act as compensation for personal injury or sickness are excluded from gross income by federal statute.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 104 – Compensation for Injuries or Sickness Florida has no state income tax, so the benefit arrives tax-free.
If you also collect Social Security Disability Insurance, expect an offset. Combined SSDI and workers’ compensation payments cannot exceed 80% of your average earnings before the disability. If the total goes over, the Social Security Administration cuts your SSDI check by the excess.13Social Security Administration. How Workers Compensation and Other Disability Payments May Affect Your Benefits The reduction lasts until you reach full retirement age or your workers’ compensation payments end. Report any change in your workers’ compensation payments to the SSA, because increases, decreases, and lump-sum settlements can all shift the offset.