How Michigan calculates your weekly check
While your doctor keeps you off work, Michigan pays temporary total disability (TTD) benefits of 80% of your after-tax average weekly wage. The result is limited to a weekly maximum that Michigan resets on a fixed schedule. Your limits are the ones in effect on your date of injury.
- Maximum: $1,201.00 a week (injuries from January 1 to December 31, 2026).
- Previous maximum: $1,164.00 for 2025 injuries.
- When the cap applies: an average weekly wage above $1,501.25 after tax reaches the maximum.
Michigan bases the rate on after-tax wages. The agency publishes official rate books by wage, filing status and exemptions.
There is no minimum for ordinary wage-loss benefits.
| Average weekly wage | Weekly benefit | Share of wage | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| $600 | $480.00 | 80% | Standard rate |
| $1,000 | $800.00 | 80% | Standard rate |
| $1,500 | $1,200.00 | 80% | Standard rate |
| $2,200 | $1,201.00 | 55% | Capped at maximum |
Waiting period
Benefits start on day 8. If disability lasts 2 weeks or longer, the first week is paid back. The waiting period applies to wage benefits only; medical treatment is covered from the first day.
How long benefits last
No week limit. Paid as long as you are disabled, with possible reductions after age 65.
Permanent disability and settlements
Michigan pays "specific loss" benefits for the amputation or total loss of use of a listed body part, for the weeks in MCL 418.361(2), at 80% of after-tax wages, whether or not you lose wages. There is no general impairment-rating award for other injuries; those are paid as wage loss.
The specific loss minimum for 2026 is $333.47 a week (25% of the state average weekly wage).
An 80% loss of vision in one eye counts as total loss of that eye.
Example: Loss of the hand is 215 weeks. At a $1,000 weekly wage the rate is $800.00 a week, for a statutory value of about $172,000.
| Body part | Weeks | Example value |
|---|---|---|
| Arm | 269 | $215,200 (total loss) |
| Hand | 215 | $172,000 (total loss) |
| Thumb | 65 | $52,000 (total loss) |
| First (index) finger | 38 | $30,400 (total loss) |
| Second finger | 33 | $26,400 (total loss) |
| Third finger | 22 | $17,600 (total loss) |
| Fourth finger | 16 | $12,800 (total loss) |
| Leg | 215 | $172,000 (total loss) |
| Foot | 162 | $129,600 (total loss) |
| Great toe | 33 | $26,400 (total loss) |
| Other toe | 11 | $8,800 (total loss) |
| Eye | 162 | $129,600 (total loss) |