Kansas Impairment Rating Payout Calculator: Formulas and Caps

A Kansas impairment rating payout calculator runs on three numbers multiplied together: the compensable weeks assigned to your injury, the impairment percentage from your doctor, and a weekly payment rate equal to two-thirds of your pre-injury wages. For injuries occurring between July 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026, the weekly rate is capped at $869, and the total award is capped at either $100,000 or $225,000 depending on which category your claim falls into.¹ The arithmetic is simple. The pieces that feed it are where estimates go wrong.

Three Numbers You Need Before You Calculate

Every calculation starts with the same inputs. Missing or misreading any one of them throws off the result.

The impairment rating is a percentage assigned by a physician after you reach Maximum Medical Improvement, the point where further treatment won’t meaningfully change your condition. Kansas requires the rating to be based on the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, 6th Edition.² If the doctor’s report doesn’t name the table and code used, ask for it. That’s the easiest way to verify the number.

Your Average Weekly Wage comes from your gross earnings (including overtime and bonuses) during the 26 calendar weeks before the injury, divided by the number of weeks you actually worked in that stretch. If you worked fewer than 26 weeks, you divide by the actual number.³ The number usually appears on the Employer’s Report of Accident or on wage statements from the carrier.

The weeks of temporary disability benefits you have already received matter because Kansas subtracts most of them from the weeks available for your permanent award. Skip this and your estimate will come in high.

Your Weekly Payment Rate

The weekly rate for both scheduled and whole-body injuries is two-thirds (66⅔%) of your Average Weekly Wage, subject to the statutory maximum. For injuries on or after July 1, 2025, that maximum is $869 per week.⁴ The cap tracks 75% of the statewide average weekly wage, which was $1,159.03 for calendar year 2024.⁵

In practical terms, anyone earning about $1,304 per week or more before the injury will hit the $869 cap. Below that, multiply your Average Weekly Wage by 0.6667.

Scheduled Injury Formula

Injuries to specific body parts (arms, legs, hands, feet, and others) fall under Kansas’s schedule, which assigns a fixed number of weeks to each.⁶

Arm including the shoulder: 225 weeks
Arm excluding the shoulder: 210 weeks
Leg: 200 weeks
Hand: 150 weeks
Foot: 125 weeks

The step most people miss is that temporary compensation weeks already paid are subtracted from the scheduled total before the impairment percentage is applied. The sequence:

Look up the scheduled weeks for your body part.
Divide the total temporary benefits already paid by your weekly payment rate to get the number of temporary weeks.
Subtract that from the scheduled weeks.
Multiply the remainder by your impairment percentage.
Multiply that by your weekly payment rate.

A worked example. You have a 10% impairment to the arm including the shoulder, a payment rate of $600, and 10 weeks of temporary compensation already paid. Start with 225 weeks, subtract 10, and you have 215. Then 215 × 10% = 21.5 compensable weeks. Finally, 21.5 × $600 = $12,900. Skip the temporary-week offset and you’d overestimate the payout at $13,500.

Whole-Body Injury Formula

Injuries to the spine, head, neck, and internal organs (anything not on the scheduled list) are whole-body claims under K.S.A. 44-510e. The maximum is 415 weeks, and the temporary compensation offset works differently: the first 15 weeks of temporary comp are excluded from the subtraction.²⁷

Divide total temporary benefits paid by your weekly payment rate to get temporary weeks.
Subtract 15 weeks from that total. If you received 15 weeks or fewer, nothing comes off the 415.
Subtract whatever remains from 415.
Multiply by your impairment percentage (or your work disability percentage, if you qualify).
Multiply by your weekly payment rate.

Example: a 15% whole-body impairment, a $700 weekly payment rate, and 25 weeks of temporary comp. The 25 weeks minus the 15-week exclusion leaves 10 to subtract. Then 415 − 10 = 405 adjusted weeks. Next, 405 × 15% = 60.75 weeks. Finally, 60.75 × $700 = $42,525. Without the 15-week exclusion the payout would be $41,475.

Functional Impairment or Work Disability

For whole-body claims, Kansas pays at one of two levels, and which one applies changes both the percentage you plug into the formula and the dollar cap on the total award.²

A functional impairment award uses only the doctor’s AMA Guides rating. It measures physical loss without regard to earning power. The total is capped at $100,000.¹

A work disability award factors in how the injury changed your ability to earn. Two thresholds must be met:

At least 7.5% functional whole-body impairment from the injury alone, or at least 10% overall if there was a preexisting condition.
At least a 10% post-injury wage loss caused by the work injury.

When you qualify, the percentage used in the formula is the average of your task loss (a doctor’s assessment of job tasks you can no longer perform given permanent restrictions) and your wage loss (the gap between pre-injury and post-injury earning capacity). That averaged percentage replaces the functional impairment percentage, and the cap rises to $225,000.¹

You get one or the other, not both. One trap worth knowing: if your employer offers accommodated work within your restrictions at 90% or more of your pre-injury wage and you turn it down, Kansas presumes no wage loss, which can knock you out of work disability entirely.²

Statutory Caps That Override the Math

Whatever the formula produces, Kansas enforces hard dollar ceilings. Under K.S.A. 44-510f, the maximums an employer owes for a single injury are:¹

Permanent total disability: $400,000, including all temporary and partial payments already made.
Temporary total disability: $225,000, including any prior permanent or partial payments.
Permanent or temporary partial disability (work disability): $225,000.
Permanent partial disability (functional impairment only): $100,000.

Those caps include temporary total and temporary partial payments already made on the same claim. If you received $30,000 in temporary benefits and then qualify for a functional impairment award, the permanent partial piece is limited to $70,000, not the full $100,000. On claims with long recovery periods, the running tab of temporary benefits can eat into the permanent award before the impairment rating is even assigned.

Deadlines That Can Wipe Out the Claim

No formula helps if the claim is time-barred. Kansas enforces two separate deadlines. Notice to the employer must be given within 30 calendar days of the accident, or within 20 calendar days of your last day of employment if you’ve already left.⁸ And an application for hearing must be filed with the Kansas Division of Workers Compensation within three years of the accident or within two years of the last compensation payment, whichever is later.⁹ Miss either and the payout you just calculated is zero.

1
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 44-510f
2
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 44-510e – Compensation for Temporary or Permanent Partial General Disabilities
3
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 44-511 – Definitions; Average Weekly Wage
4
State of Kansas Department of Labor. Historic Benefit Levels
5
State of Kansas Department of Labor. Injuries at Work
6
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 44-510d – Compensation for Certain Permanent Partial Disabilities; Computation Thereof; Schedule
7
Justia. Kansas Statutes 44-510e – Compensation for Temporary or Permanent Partial General Disabilities
8
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 44-520 – Notice of Injury
9
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 44-534