About the report
This report estimates how much an injured employee's income benefits earned during their injury period help to replace their lost wages. The types of benefits included in the analysis are:
- Temporary income benefits.
- Impairment income benefits.
- Supplemental income benefits.
- Lifetime income benefits.
- Death benefits.
- Burial benefits.
This report also provides information on the percentage and characteristics of injured employees who received the maximum amount of income benefits.
Published July 2025 by the Workers' Compensation Research & Evaluation Group.
Summary
With the system’s reductions in medical costs and improvements in injured employee return-to-work rates, we turn our attention to income benefits paid to injured employees, especially those paid to high-wage earners who receive the maximum compensation rate. Workers’ compensation income benefits are not taxable, so to adequately measure current statutory compensation rates, the amount of workers’ compensation income benefits received must be compared to an injured employee’s after-tax earnings. In 2018 new tax regulations went into effect, increasing after-tax earnings for employees. As a result, data shows decreases around 2018, before returning to pre-2018 levels.
Key findings
