Average Workers’ Comp Permanent Disability Settlement

Work injuries are handled differently than most other injuries. If you get hurt at work, you are not allowed to sue your employer in most cases. Instead, you make a claim with your employer’s workers’ compensation insurer. The insurer covers all injuries on the job, regardless of whether or not your employer was negligent and played a role in causing them.

Workers’ compensation insurers pay compensation to cover:

• Medical bills and ongoing care
• Loss of wages
• Disability benefits for temporary or permanent partial or full disability

You can settle your workers’ compensation claim with the insurer and agree to accept either a lump sum payment or ongoing payments in the form of a structured settlement. Once you settle, you give up any future right to claims arising from the same injury.

If you are permanently disabled, you will want to make sure your settlement is sufficient to cover your medical bills and disability benefits for the rest of your working life.

The average workers’ comp settlement is $20,000–but this isn’t necessarily a helpful number if you’re hoping to figure out what your workers’ comp permanent disability settlement amount should be. That’s because there are big differences in the amount of potential compensation available depending on factors like:

• State laws
• Whether your permanent disability is total or partial
• Which body part is affected
• What your wages were prior to injury
• How much, if anything, you can earn after being hurt

You will be considered permanently disabled only if your impairing condition will last for the rest of your life. Whether your disability is full or partial depends on the impairment rating you are assigned after reaching maximum medical improvement (MMI).

You reach MMI when a trained medical professional declares you are not going to improve any more from your present condition. A doctor gives you an impairment rating at that time and if it exceeds a certain percentage (such as 20% or 35% depending on state laws), you may be considered permanently totally disabled. A lower impairment rating means you have a partial permanent disability.

The best way to determine what your workers’ comp permanent disability settlement is worth is to talk with an experienced attorney who can evaluate your situation and give you advice relevant to your injuries.

The National Safety Council does have some data on workers’ compensation costs by body part. This data can help you to understand how much your settlement may be worth per particular part of your body. For example, the table below shows average total costs per workers’ comp claim by body part from 2019 to 2020.

Part of body	Medical	Indemnity	Total
All claims average	$22,377	$18,976	$41,353
Head/CNS	$60,875	$33,067	$93,942
Multiple body parts	$32,647	$30,212	$62,859
Hip/thigh/pelvis	$36,553	$23,205	$59,758
Leg	$38,049	$21,699	$59,748
Neck	$30,404	$28,987	$59,391
Arm/shoulders	$26,088	$23,028	$49,116
Lower back	$17,486	$20,480	$37,966
Upper back	$17,799	$18,955	$36,754
Knee	$18,293	$16,639	$34,932
Face	$18,435	$14,646	$33,081
Ankle	$17,534	$14,360	$31,894
Foot/toes	$15,264	$12,629	$27,893
Multiple trunk/abdomen	$16,933	$10,208	$27,141
Hand/fingers/wrist	$14,669	$11,235	$25,904
Chest/organs	$11,045	$10,294	$21,339

Table source: National Safety Council

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Remember, this does not mean that your permanent disability settlement will equal this amount. You may be more or less impaired by your disability than the average person, and the wages you lost and cost of treatments you need may differ from the average person.

Before accepting any workers’ comp settlement, get legal advice from an attorney who can tell you what your specific claim is worth.

You and your employer’s workers’ compensation insurer can negotiate a settlement. If you come to an agreement, you can accept the settlement offer and your claim will be resolved. You cannot change your mind later so be sure your settlement covers all that you need it to in the future–especially if you are permanently disabled.

If you don’t believe your employers’ workers’ comp insurer is being fair in handling your claim, you can move forward with a workers’ comp hearing before an administrative law judge. You need to present evidence showing your injury was work-related and demonstrating the severity of your damages and the extent of your loss. A workers’ comp lawyer can provide help throughout this process.