Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Calculator: TTD, PPD, and Death Benefits

A Nebraska workers’ compensation calculator starts with one number: your average weekly wage for the six months before the injury, multiplied by 66⅔%. That figure drives temporary total disability, temporary partial disability, permanent partial disability, and death benefits alike. For injuries occurring in 2026, no weekly check can exceed $1,166, and none can fall below $49.¹² The rate that applies to your claim locks in based on the year the injury occurred, so a 2025 injury still carries the 2025 cap of $1,130 even if payments extend into later years.

Step One: Find Your Average Weekly Wage

Nebraska law bases average weekly wage (AWW) on your earnings during the six months immediately before the accident.³ The insurer uses a “26 Week Wage Statement” documenting that history; part-time and seasonal workers may need a 52-week statement instead to capture irregular earnings.⁴ If you have been employed for less than six months, the insurer may look at earnings of a similar worker in the same role to fill the gap.

Watch the overtime line. Overtime is excluded from AWW unless the employer’s insurance policy collected premium on that overtime.³ If your paychecks include heavy overtime, pull all six months of stubs and separate the base from the overtime before you project a number. Otherwise your estimate will run higher than what the insurer will actually pay.

The 2026 Maximum and Minimum

Regardless of how high your AWW runs, Nebraska caps weekly benefits at 100% of the state average weekly wage, which is recalculated each year.² For 2026 injuries the ceiling is $1,166.¹ A worker earning $2,500 per week would calculate to $1,667 at 66⅔%, but receives $1,166 because the cap controls.

The statutory minimum is $49 per week.² If your actual weekly wage was below $49 at the time of injury, you receive your full wages instead.⁵

Temporary Total Disability

Temporary total disability (TTD) covers the period when you cannot work at all while recovering. Multiply your AWW by 66⅔%.⁶ An AWW of $900 produces a $600 weekly TTD check. Anything over $1,166 gets trimmed to the cap.

Payments don’t start on day one. Nebraska imposes a seven-day waiting period; benefits begin on the eighth day. If your disability stretches to six weeks or longer, the insurer must go back and pay you for that first week retroactively.⁷ Return to work at five weeks and three days and that first week is gone for good.

Temporary Partial Disability

If you go back to work in a lighter role or with reduced hours but earn less than before, temporary partial disability (TPD) pays 66⅔% of the difference between your pre-injury wages and your current earning power.⁶ Earn $1,000 before and $600 after, the gap is $400, and your TPD is roughly $267 per week.

TPD is subject to the same weekly cap and cannot continue beyond 300 weeks. Any TTD weeks you already collected reduce that 300-week window.⁶

Permanent Partial Disability for Scheduled Body Parts

Once a doctor determines you have reached maximum medical improvement and assigns a permanent impairment rating, the claim shifts to permanent partial disability (PPD). PPD is paid in addition to the temporary benefits you already received. For scheduled body parts, the statute assigns a fixed number of weeks paid at 66⅔% of your daily wages.⁶

Arm: 225 weeks
Leg: 215 weeks
Hand: 175 weeks
Foot: 150 weeks
Eye: 125 weeks
Thumb: 60 weeks
Hearing in one ear: 50 weeks
Nose: 50 weeks
Index finger: 35 weeks
Second finger: 30 weeks
Great toe: 30 weeks
Ear: 25 weeks
Third finger: 20 weeks
Little finger: 15 weeks
Other toes: 10 weeks each

Multiply the statutory weeks by the impairment percentage. A 15% impairment to a hand equals 26.25 weeks (175 × 0.15). At a $600 weekly rate, that comes to $15,750. When multiple scheduled parts are involved, the benefit periods run back to back rather than overlapping.

Permanent Partial Disability for Body-as-a-Whole Injuries

Injuries to the head, back, neck, or internal organs don’t appear on the schedule. Nebraska evaluates these under a “loss of earning capacity” standard.⁶ The question isn’t just how much function you lost; it’s how much your injury limits your ability to find and hold work in the open job market. A vocational expert typically weighs age, education, work history, physical restrictions, and the jobs realistically available to you.

Benefits are calculated as 66⅔% of the gap between your pre-injury wages and your post-injury earning power, capped at 300 weeks. Because vocational analysis often yields a higher percentage than the medical impairment rating alone, body-as-a-whole claims tend to involve more negotiation than scheduled injuries.

Death Benefits for Survivors

When a workplace injury or occupational disease causes death, dependents receive ongoing weekly benefits calculated from the deceased worker’s AWW.⁸

Surviving spouse, no children: 66⅔% of AWW, paid during widowhood or widowerhood
Surviving spouse with children living together: 60% of AWW to the spouse, plus 15% for each child
Children, no surviving spouse: 66⅔% for one child, plus 15% for each additional child, divided equally
Dependent parents: 25% each
Other dependents such as siblings, grandparents, or grandchildren: 25% each if actually dependent

All death benefits are subject to the same weekly maximum and minimum that apply to disability payments.⁵ A surviving spouse who remarries receives a lump-sum payment equal to two years of benefits.⁸ Burial expenses up to $11,900 are covered regardless of whether any dependents exist.¹

What Your Weekly Number Doesn’t Cover

Medical costs run separately from your disability check. The employer or its insurer pays all reasonable medical, surgical, and hospital costs the injury requires, including prescriptions, prosthetic devices, hearing aids, eyeglasses damaged in the accident, and rehabilitation services.⁹ Cosmetic surgery is excluded, but reconstructive surgery is covered when the injury caused disfigurement. Vocational rehabilitation and job placement assistance run alongside your disability payments when the injury prevents you from returning to your previous type of work.¹⁰

Taxes and the Social Security Offset

Workers’ compensation benefits paid for an occupational injury or sickness are fully exempt from federal income tax, and that exemption extends to survivors receiving death benefits.¹¹ One exception: if you retire due to your injury and later receive retirement plan distributions based on age or years of service, those distributions are taxable.

If you also collect Social Security Disability Insurance, the combined amount may trigger an offset. The combined total generally cannot exceed 80% of your pre-disability earnings. Your workers’ compensation amount doesn’t change; the reduction comes out of the Social Security side.

Settlements and Medicare Set-Asides

If your claim ends in a lump-sum settlement and you’re already a Medicare beneficiary, any settlement over $25,000 requires a Medicare Set-Aside arrangement reviewed by CMS. If you’re not yet on Medicare but reasonably expect to enroll within 30 months of settlement, the review threshold is $250,000.¹²

A Medicare Set-Aside carves out part of your settlement to cover future injury-related medical expenses that Medicare would otherwise pay. Skip one when it’s required and Medicare can refuse to pay for treatment related to your work injury, which is why most claimants use an allocator or an attorney who specializes in these calculations before signing anything.

1
Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Court. Benefit Rates
2
Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 48-121.01 – Maximum and Minimum Weekly Income Benefit, Amounts, Governor, Power to Suspend
3
Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 48-126 – Wages, How Computed
4
Nebraska Department of Administrative Services. State of Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Policy and Procedure Manual
5
Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 48-122 – Compensation, Injuries Causing Death, Amount and Duration of Payments
6
Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 48-121 – Compensation, Schedule, Total Partial and Temporary Disability
7
Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 48-119 – Compensation, From What Date Computed
8
Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 48-122.01 – Compensation, Death Benefits, Dependents Distribution
9
Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 48-120 – Medical, Surgical, and Hospital Services
10
Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 48-162.01 – Vocational Rehabilitation Plan, Priorities
11
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 525, Taxable and Nontaxable Income
12
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set Aside Arrangements