What you're owed

Use the calculator above. It computes temporary disability, permanent disability, the life pension, medical mileage and the late-payment penalty, and it prints the Labor Code section next to every number it gives you. It is free, there is nothing to sign up for, and it works on a phone.

Below is what each number means and where the arithmetic can go wrong.

Temporary disability — the check while you're off work

Two-thirds of your average weekly earnings, subject to a floor and a ceiling — Labor Code § 4653 and § 4453.

The rate is fixed by your date of injury. A 2022 injury is paid at 2022 rates, not at whatever the state announced last January. Published rate tables get this wrong constantly, in both directions.

With one exception that is worth real money — Labor Code § 4661.5.

When a temporary total disability payment is made two years or more after your date of injury, that payment is computed using the § 4453 earnings limits in effect on the date of the payment — unless doing so would pay you less because the minimum fell.

A worker injured in 2020 was capped at $1,299.43 a week. If a denied or litigated claim means they are still receiving temporary disability in 2026, that payment is computed at the 2026 cap of $1,764.11 — a difference of $464.68 a week, about $24,163 a year.

It is self-executing. Nobody has to apply for it, exactly like the § 4650(d) 10%. Carriers pay the old rate anyway, and an underpayment carries exposure to the § 4650(d) increase and to § 5814. The full explanation.

Your average weekly earnings are probably higher than the adjuster computed. Under § 4453(c) they include overtime, shift differentials, bonuses, the value of board and lodging where the employer provides it, and earnings from a concurrent second job. The second job is the one most often left out, and leaving it out reduces every week of your check.

For injuries in 2026 the range is $264.61 to $1,764.11 a week. If you earned more than $2,646.16 a week, you are capped, and the difference is not recoverable — but it does change what your case is worth elsewhere, which is worth a conversation.

Every year's rate, with the source → · How temporary disability works →

Permanent disability — what the percentage is worth

A permanent disability percentage converts to a number of weeks, and the weeks convert to dollars at a weekly rate that has been frozen at $160–$290 since January 1, 2014 and is not indexed to anything.

The weeks accumulate; they are not multiplied. Labor Code § 4658(d)(1) sets seven bands, and the statute says the figures "shall be cumulative." Each quarter-point of your rating earns weeks at the rate of the band it falls in. Multiplying your whole rating by a single band's figure — a common shortcut in published calculators — produces a number that is wrong at every rating above 10%.

A note for anyone checking us against the statute. Subdivision (a) of § 4658 contains a worked example showing 15% = 50.25 weeks. That example belongs to subdivision (a), which by its own terms governs injuries occurring prior to January 1, 1992. For an injury on or after January 1, 2005 the answer is 50.50 weeks, under subdivision (d)(1); subdivisions (b), (c) and (e) carry the 1992, 2004 and 2013 schedules. The discrepancy is in the statute, not in this page.

How permanent disability works → · Decode your rating string →

The life pension — the benefit most people are never told about

At 70% and above, Labor Code § 4659 adds a small weekly payment that begins when the permanent disability weeks run out and continues for the rest of your life. At 99% it is $301.50 a week at the $515.38 earnings cap, and for injuries on or after January 1, 2003 it escalates annually with the state average weekly wage under § 4659(c).

Seventy per cent is therefore a cliff, not a step. A rating argued from 68% to 70% is worth far more than two points suggest.

Life pension and permanent total disability →

Mileage — and why the date matters twice

Medical mileage is reimbursable under § 4600(e). The rate is set by the date you travelled, not by your date of injury — the opposite of the temporary disability rule. California changed the rate mid-year in 2026: 72.5¢ from January 1 and 76¢ from July 1. A trip in August 2026 reimburses at 76¢ even on a 2019 claim.

Late payments — the 10% you do not have to ask for

The first temporary disability payment is due within 14 days of the employer learning of a disabling injury (§ 4650(a)); after that, every two weeks (§ 4650(c)). A late payment carries an automatic 10% increase under § 4650(d), payable, in the statute's words, "without application" — no hearing, no motion, no proof that the delay was unreasonable.

It is routinely not added. The calculator will tell you what you are owed.

Late payments and penalties →

What this calculator will tell you that others won't

It names the trap next to the number. If you are a capped high earner it tells you in dollars what the cap costs you each year. If you are near 70% it tells you there is a cliff and what is on the other side of it. If you compute temporary disability it reminds you that a second job belongs in the wage figure.

A calculator that returns a number and nothing else is a widget. The number that changes an outcome is usually the one telling you that your input is wrong.

Where these figures come from

Every figure on this site is read from a single rate record, verified against the Division of Workers' Compensation's own published newslines and the statutory text, and dated. It is reviewed each January, when most of these numbers change, and immediately whenever the Division announces a mid-year change.

Last verified August 19, 2026. If you find an error here, tell us and we will correct it in public. Corrections →

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