How California calculates your weekly check
While your doctor keeps you off work, California pays temporary total disability (TTD) benefits of two-thirds of your average weekly earnings. The result is limited to a weekly maximum and minimum that California resets on a fixed schedule. Your limits are the ones in effect on your date of injury.
- Maximum: $1,764.11 a week (injuries from January 1 to December 31, 2026).
- Minimum: $264.61 a week.
- Previous maximum: $1,680.29 for 2025 injuries.
- When the cap applies: an average weekly wage above $2,646.17 reaches the maximum.
For 2026 injuries, average weekly earnings below $396.92 are paid the $264.61 minimum, and earnings above $2,646.17 are paid the $1,764.11 maximum.
The limits rise every January 1 with the state average weekly wage, which was $1,789.00 for 2026.
The first payment is due within 14 days after the employer learns of the injury and disability, then every two weeks. Late payments are increased by 10%.
| Average weekly wage | Weekly benefit | Share of wage | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| $600 | $400.00 | 67% | Standard rate |
| $1,000 | $666.67 | 67% | Standard rate |
| $1,500 | $1,000.00 | 67% | Standard rate |
| $2,200 | $1,466.67 | 67% | Standard rate |
Waiting period
No pay for the first 3 days. If disability lasts more than 14 days, or you are hospitalized as an inpatient, those days are paid back. The waiting period applies to wage benefits only; medical treatment is covered from the first day.
How long benefits last
Up to 104 compensable weeks within 5 years of the injury. Certain conditions, such as amputations, severe burns, HIV, hepatitis B or C and some eye and lung injuries, allow up to 240 weeks within 5 years.
Permanent disability and settlements
California does not use a body-part schedule. A doctor rates your whole person impairment, which is multiplied by 1.4 for injuries since 2013 and then adjusted for your occupation and age to give a permanent disability rating. Labor Code 4658 turns that rating into weeks, with more weeks per point at higher ratings, paid at two-thirds of your average weekly earnings between $160 and $290 a week.
Enter your final permanent disability rating, after the occupation and age adjustments, not the raw impairment number.
Ratings of 70% to 99% also earn a life pension after the regular weeks end, and a 100% rating is permanent total disability paid for life.
Example: A 10% permanent disability rating is 30.25 weeks. At a $1,000 weekly wage the rate is $290.00 a week, for a statutory value of about $8,773.
| Rating | Weeks | Example value |
|---|---|---|
| 5% | 15 | $4,350 |
| 10% | 30.25 | $8,773 |
| 15% | 50.5 | $14,645 |
| 20% | 75.5 | $21,895 |
| 30% | 131 | $37,990 |
| 50% | 271.25 | $78,663 |