Illinois Workers’ Comp Settlement Chart: Body Part Values and Caps

The Illinois workers’ comp settlement chart assigns a fixed number of weeks to each body part, and your settlement is that week count multiplied by your percentage of loss and by 60% of your average weekly wage. An arm is worth 253 weeks at 100% loss, a hand 205 weeks, a leg 215 weeks, a foot 167 weeks, an eye 162 weeks. Body parts not on the chart, including the back, neck, shoulder, and hip, are valued against a 500-week “person as a whole” maximum instead. The chart gives you the weeks; the dollar figure depends on your wages and on how the Commission rates your impairment.¹

The Formula Behind Every Settlement

Three inputs decide the number. Your average weekly wage (AWW) is set under Section 10 of the Workers’ Compensation Act based on your pre-injury earnings. Multiply that AWW by 60% to get your permanent partial disability (PPD) weekly rate. Then multiply the weekly rate by your compensable weeks, which come from the schedule below reduced by your percentage of loss.¹

A worked example makes the arithmetic concrete. A worker earning $800 per week injures a hand and is rated at 20% loss of use. The PPD rate is $800 × 60% = $480. The hand is worth 205 weeks on the schedule, so compensable weeks are 205 × 20% = 41. The PPD benefit is $480 × 41 = $19,680.

If you support a spouse or children, your PPD rate increases by 10% for each dependent, capped at your actual AWW. A worker with a spouse and two children uses 90% of AWW rather than 60%, subject to the statutory ceiling.¹

Week Values by Body Part

The schedule in Section 8(e) of the Workers’ Compensation Act fixes the weeks. The values below apply to injuries on or after February 1, 2006, when the legislature raised the counts across the schedule. Each figure represents 100% loss; almost every real case involves a partial percentage.¹

Arms, Hands, and Fingers

Arm: 253 weeks. Add 17 weeks if amputated above the elbow, or 70 weeks if at the shoulder.
Hand: 205 weeks. Reduced to 190 weeks for carpal tunnel injuries occurring on or after June 28, 2011.
Thumb: 76 weeks.
Index finger: 43 weeks.
Middle finger: 38 weeks.
Ring finger: 27 weeks.
Little finger: 22 weeks.

Legs, Feet, and Toes

Leg: 215 weeks. Add 27 weeks if amputated above the knee, or 81 weeks if at the hip.
Foot: 167 weeks.
Great toe: 38 weeks.
Each other toe: 13 weeks.

Eyes, Ears, and Other

Eye: 162 weeks. Add 11 weeks if the eye is surgically removed.
Hearing in one ear: 54 weeks.
Total hearing loss in both ears: 215 weeks.
One testicle: 54 weeks.
Both testicles: 162 weeks.

To move from the chart to your own number, apply your percentage of loss to the week count. A 15% loss of use of a leg produces 215 × 15% = 32.25 compensable weeks. Multiply by your PPD rate for the dollar figure.¹

Carpal Tunnel: A Lower Ceiling

Repetitive-trauma carpal tunnel is the one place where the type of injury changes the value of a body part. For injury dates on or after June 28, 2011, the maximum drops from 205 to 190 weeks. Permanency is also capped at 15% loss of use of the hand, rising to 30% only on clear and convincing evidence of greater disability.¹

How the Percentage of Loss Is Decided

The chart hands you the weeks. Your percentage of loss is where the dispute usually lives, and Section 8.1b requires the Commission to weigh five factors, with no single factor controlling:²

A physician’s impairment rating under the most current edition of the AMA Guides, based on measurable factors like range of motion, strength, and tissue atrophy.
Your occupation, meaning how the injury affects the specific duties of your job rather than work generally.
Your age, with younger workers sometimes receiving a higher percentage because they face a longer lifetime of impairment.
Your future earning capacity, which pushes the percentage up if you cannot return to your prior position or your range of available work has narrowed.
Evidence of disability in the treating physician’s medical records, corroborating the level of impairment claimed.

The same injury can produce different percentages for different people. A 45-year-old construction worker with a 10% AMA rating to the shoulder will typically receive a higher percentage-of-loss award than a 25-year-old office worker with the same rating, because the physical demands of the job and the impact on future earnings run in opposite directions.²

Injuries Not on the Chart

The schedule covers arms, legs, hands, feet, eyes, ears, and digits. Back, neck, head, shoulder, hip, and internal organ injuries are not on it. Those claims are valued under Section 8(d)(2) as a percentage of the “person as a whole,” with a maximum of 500 weeks.³

The math works the same way. The Commission assigns a percentage of impairment using the same five factors, multiplies it by 500 weeks, and applies your 60% PPD rate with the dependent adjustments. A worker earning $500 per week with a back injury rated at 10% loss of the person as a whole has a PPD rate of $300, compensable weeks of 500 × 10% = 50, and a total benefit of $15,000.³ Because 500 is a large denominator, even a modest percentage produces meaningful dollars when wages are high.

Rate Caps That Can Override the 60% Math

Your calculated PPD rate is subject to a ceiling and a floor that reset every six months. The Illinois Department of Employment Security publishes the statewide average weekly wage (SAWW), and the Commission posts updated maximum and minimum benefit rates by January 15 and July 15 each year.⁴

For July 15, 2025 through January 14, 2026, the SAWW is $1,481.05. The maximum weekly PPD rate for amputation or eye removal is $1,974.73, with a minimum of $740.53. For non-amputation PPD cases, the minimum starts at $400 per week for a worker with no dependents and rises by roughly $60 per dependent up to $600 for four or more. The minimum cannot exceed your actual AWW in any case.

If your 60% figure exceeds the published maximum, your rate is capped at the maximum in effect on your date of injury, and that rate locks in for the life of the claim. Timing relative to the six-month update cycle can change your total payout.

Disfigurement Awards

Serious, permanent disfigurement to certain visible body areas is compensated separately under Section 8(c). Eligible areas are the hand, head, face, neck, arm, leg below the knee, and chest above the armpit line. The maximum award is 162 weeks for injuries on or after February 1, 2006, paid at the same 60% PPD rate.¹

You cannot stack a disfigurement award on top of a scheduled or person-as-a-whole PPD award for the same injury. If both apply, you receive whichever is higher. A disfigurement hearing cannot occur until at least six months after the date of injury, so the scarring has time to reach its permanent appearance.

Wage Differential as an Alternative

If the injury keeps you out of your previous line of work entirely, Section 8(d)(1) allows a wage differential instead of a scheduled or person-as-a-whole award. The benefit is two-thirds of the difference between what you were earning before the injury and what you can earn afterward.¹

For injuries on or after September 1, 2011, the wage differential runs until you turn 67 or for five years from the date the award becomes final, whichever is later. Injuries before that date could produce lifetime payments. Wage differential is often the better route for higher earners forced into substantially lower-paying jobs, though it requires proof that you genuinely cannot return to your prior occupation.¹

1
Illinois General Assembly. 820 ILCS 305/8 – Workers Compensation Act
2
Illinois General Assembly. 820 ILCS 305/8.1b – Determination of Permanent Partial Disability
3
Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission. Handbook on Workers Compensation and Occupational Diseases
4
Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission. Benefit Rates