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How much workers' comp pays in California

By Richard Vaughn CPCU, ARM, AIS. Reviewed November 8, 2026. Richard is an insurance professional, not an attorney. This page explains the law; it is not legal advice.

How the weekly rate is set

Temporary disability (TD) replaces part of the wages you lose while a doctor says you cannot work, or can only work with restrictions your employer cannot accommodate. The rate is two-thirds of your average weekly earnings before the injury (Labor Code §4653), subject to a floor and a ceiling that the Division of Workers' Compensation publishes for each year of injury.

Minimum and maximum by year of injury

The floor and ceiling below come from the DWC benefit schedule. Where the DWC announced the year's rates in a Newsline, that announcement is cited too.

The maximum rises each January by the same percentage as the state average weekly wage (SAWW) reported by the U.S. Department of Labor for the twelve months ending the previous March (Labor Code §4453(a)(10)). For 2026 the SAWW rose 4.98826% to $1,789.00, which is what moved the maximum to $1,764.11.

How long payments last

For most injuries, TD is payable for a combined total of 104 weeks within five years of the date of injury (Labor Code §4656). Nine listed conditions carry a 240-week limit within the same five years instead: acute and chronic hepatitis B, acute and chronic hepatitis C, amputations, severe burns, HIV, high-velocity eye injuries, chemical burns to the eyes, pulmonary fibrosis and chronic lung disease (Labor Code §4656(c)(3)).

When the first payment is due

The claims administrator has 14 days from knowledge of the injury and disability to make the first payment or to send a notice explaining why it is delayed (Labor Code §4650). A late indemnity payment is increased by 10%, paid to you automatically, unless the employer is continuing your salary or, within the first 14 days, cannot yet tell whether TD is owed and tells you why, what information it needs and when it expects to have it (Labor Code §4650(d)).

What counts as earnings

The two-thirds is taken from average weekly earnings as the Labor Code defines them (Labor Code §4453), not from your base hourly rate. Earnings are gross, before taxes and deductions, and include overtime, bonuses, tips, commissions and the reasonable value of board, lodging and other benefits that were part of your pay. If you held a second job at the time of injury, those wages count too, because the loss the benefit replaces is the loss of your total earning capacity. For a worker whose hours varied, the claims administrator averages a representative period, usually the year before the injury; for a seasonal or newly hired worker it uses what a comparable employee earns. The claims administrator must tell you in writing how it computed the figure, and the figure is worth checking against your own pay records, because every dollar of earnings below the maximum adds two-thirds of a dollar to the weekly rate.

Low-wage and part-time workers are protected by the minimum. For injuries in 2026 anyone whose two-thirds would fall below $264.61 is paid $264.61; the statute sets the minimum as a floor on average weekly earnings, not as a percentage of what you actually earned (Labor Code §4453(a)(10)).

Reading the table

The "earnings where the maximum starts" column is the average weekly wage at which two-thirds equals the year's maximum; anyone earning that much or more is paid the maximum regardless of how much more they earned. The state average weekly wage (SAWW) column is the figure the U.S. Department of Labor reports for California, and the percentage change in it from one year to the next is applied to the prior year's minimum and maximum to produce the new ones (Labor Code §4453(a)(10)). That is why the maximum rises in a strong wage year and stays flat in a weak one, as it did in 2024.

Injuries more than two years old

If TD is still being paid two years or more after the date of injury, each payment made after that point is computed at the minimum and maximum in effect on the date of payment rather than the year of injury, unless that would lower the payment (Labor Code §4661.5). A worker hurt in 2024 who is still off work in 2026 is paid at 2026 figures from the second anniversary of the injury onward. This matters most for workers at the maximum, whose rate steps up each January.

Temporary partial disability

If your doctor releases you to modified work and your employer offers it at lower pay or fewer hours, temporary partial disability pays two-thirds of the difference between your pre-injury average weekly earnings and what you are now earning, within the same minimum and maximum. A worker whose modified-duty pay is half of pre-injury earnings receives two-thirds of the missing half. If the employer has no work within the restrictions, temporary total disability continues at the full rate. You cannot be required to do work outside the restrictions your doctor wrote.

What TD does not pay for

Temporary disability replaces wages. It does not pay for pain, for the injury itself, or for lost promotions, and it is not reduced by the medical treatment you receive, which the claims administrator pays for separately with no copay. It is not taxed. When TD ends because your condition has stabilized, the question becomes whether there is lasting impairment, which is paid through permanent disability on a different schedule.

Questions people ask

Richard Vaughn CPCU, ARM, AIS

Richard Vaughn spent 35 years in commercial property and casualty insurance, most of it in workers' compensation: running a self-insured group, auditing premiums, and implementing claims systems for carriers and third-party administrators. He is not an attorney. dickvaughn.com