How Georgia calculates your weekly check
While your doctor keeps you off work, Georgia pays temporary total disability (TTD) benefits of 2/3 of your average weekly wage. The result is limited to a weekly maximum and minimum that Georgia resets on a fixed schedule. Your limits are the ones in effect on your date of injury.
- Maximum: $800.00 a week (injuries on or after July 1, 2023).
- Minimum: $50.00 a week, or your actual wage if it is lower.
- Previous maximum: $725.00 for injuries before July 1, 2023.
- When the cap applies: an average weekly wage above $1,200.00 reaches the maximum.
Georgia's maximum is set in the statute, not indexed every year. It has been $800 since July 1, 2023.
| Average weekly wage | Weekly benefit | Share of wage | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| $600 | $400.00 | 67% | Standard rate |
| $1,000 | $666.67 | 67% | Standard rate |
| $1,500 | $800.00 | 53% | Capped at maximum |
| $2,200 | $800.00 | 36% | Capped at maximum |
Waiting period
No pay for the first 7 days. If disability lasts 21 consecutive days, 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 400 weeks from the date of injury for non-catastrophic injuries. Catastrophic injuries have no week limit.
Permanent disability and settlements
Permanent partial disability under O.C.G.A. 34-9-263 is your rating percentage times the weeks for the body part, or 300 weeks for disability to the body as a whole, paid at 2/3 of your wage within the $800 maximum and $50 minimum. Ratings use the AMA Guides, 5th edition. It is paid whether or not you lose wages, but not while you receive temporary benefits.
Losing both arms, hands, legs or feet, any two of them, or the sight of both eyes is presumed to be permanent total disability.
Example: A 10% rating of the body as a whole is 30 weeks. At a $1,000 weekly wage the rate is $666.67 a week, for a statutory value of about $20,000.
| Body part | Weeks | Example value |
|---|---|---|
| Body as a whole | 300 | $20,000 (10%) |
| Arm | 225 | $15,000 (10%) |
| Hand | 160 | $10,667 (10%) |
| Thumb | 60 | $4,000 (10%) |
| Index finger | 40 | $2,667 (10%) |
| Middle finger | 35 | $2,333 (10%) |
| Ring finger | 30 | $2,000 (10%) |
| Little finger | 25 | $1,667 (10%) |
| Leg | 225 | $15,000 (10%) |
| Foot | 135 | $9,000 (10%) |
| Great toe | 30 | $2,000 (10%) |
| Each other toe | 20 | $1,333 (10%) |
| Vision, one eye | 150 | $10,000 (10%) |
| Hearing, one ear (traumatic) | 75 | $5,000 (10%) |
| Hearing, both ears (traumatic) | 150 | $10,000 (10%) |