Payout Workers' Compensation Body Parts Chart: How to Estimate Your Award, State Variations, and Key Steps

Estimated reading time: 16 minutes

Key Takeaways

• A payout workers' compensation body parts chart translates permanent impairment to specific “weeks” of benefits for certain body parts, then multiplies by your weekly rate to estimate money owed.

• Charts vary widely by state: some use “scheduled loss” weeks for limbs and senses, others rely on a whole person impairment model for unscheduled injuries.

• Your rating comes from medical evidence at maximum medical improvement; coding systems and official guidelines shape how insurers calculate and dispute awards.

• State rules, percentage loss, average weekly wage, caps, apportionment, vocational impact, and settlement strategy can increase or decrease your final payout.

• Use state charts and calculators for a ballpark number—then validate with the governing guidelines and your medical reports before negotiating.

• Deadlines are strict. Report and file on time, keep records organized, and consider legal help if your rating, benefits, or settlement are being minimized.

Table of Contents

• Introduction

• What Is a Workers’ Comp Body Parts Chart?

• Scheduled Loss vs. Whole Person Impairment

• How Charts Convert Injuries Into Weeks and Dollars

• State-by-State Differences and Examples

• New York: Schedule Loss of Use and Impairment Guidelines

• South Carolina: Body Part Values and Rates

• North Carolina: Settlement Factors and Charts

• Georgia: Impairment, Weeks, and 2025 Updates

• Oklahoma: Chart Guidelines

• Mississippi: Whole Body Impairment Approach

• Nationwide Comparisons and Averages

• Injury Coding That Powers the Chart

• WCIO Injury Description Tables

• California EAMS Body Part Codes

• Maryland CompHub Body Part Keys

• Getting Your Impairment Rating

• Maximum Medical Improvement and Exams

• Functional Capacity Evaluations and Med‑Legal Reports

• Estimating Your Payout, With Examples

• Example: Hand Injury

• Example: Shoulder Injury

• Example: Hearing Loss

• Factors That Increase or Decrease Your Award

• Common Pitfalls to Avoid

• Timelines, Deadlines, and When to Seek Legal Help

• Tools, Calculators, and How to Use Them

• Conclusion

• FAQ

Introduction

If you’re researching a payout workers' compensation body parts chart, you’re likely trying to understand how a permanent injury to a hand, arm, leg, back, or sense like hearing translates into a dollar figure. That’s a fair question—and a stressful one when bills are piling up and work is uncertain.

This guide explains how these charts work, how states differ, and how insurers use medical ratings to compute “weeks” of benefits. We’ll walk through the math, show real-world state examples, and highlight common mistakes to avoid. You’ll also learn how to use calculators carefully, gather the right medical evidence, and protect your rights from day one.

What Is a Workers’ Comp Body Parts Chart?

A workers’ compensation body parts chart lists specific body parts and assigns a maximum number of “weeks” of compensation for a total loss of that part. If your doctor says you’ve lost a percentage of function—say 20% of your hand—that percentage is applied to the chart’s maximum weeks for a partial loss award. Many states publish or follow versions of this system.

These charts exist to treat similar injuries consistently and to create a formula most insurers can agree on. They typically apply to “scheduled” injuries (arms, legs, hands, feet, fingers, toes, eyes, hearing), while other injuries may be valued differently. A clear overview that compares how common parts rank in value is illustrated in an infographic showing a workers’ compensation body part value chart.

As several legal guides explain, charts don’t tell the entire story—severity, medical restrictions, and wage rates also matter. Still, they’re a starting point for estimating the permanent partial disability (PPD) portion of your claim, which many firms and articles describe when discussing payout charts that break down payments by body part and injury type and how body parts are valued differently by state.

Scheduled Loss vs. Whole Person Impairment

States use two broad methods to calculate permanent disability:

• Scheduled Loss: A fixed schedule assigns weeks for specific parts. Your percentage loss times those weeks equals the benefit period. New York’s system is a classic example for extremities and senses via a Schedule Loss of Use (SLU) award.

• Whole Person Impairment (WPI): Certain injuries—especially to the spine or unscheduled conditions—are valued as a percentage of the whole person. Some states weigh WPI heavily when converting impairment into weeks or a monetary award. Mississippi, for instance, emphasizes how a whole body impairment rating can decide the amount of money you receive.

Many states combine both approaches: scheduled awards for specific parts, and WPI or other formulas for unscheduled injuries. Even within schedules, the percentage loss is guided by official medical rules. New York’s 2018 Workers’ Compensation Guidelines for Determining Impairment explain how doctors evaluate permanent loss and link to charts that map impairment to weeks.

How Charts Convert Injuries Into Weeks and Dollars

At a high level, the formula looks like this in scheduled-loss states: Benefit weeks for the body part × percentage loss of use × weekly compensation rate. It is simple in theory, but details matter. Your percentage loss comes from the medical evaluation at maximum medical improvement (MMI), and your weekly rate is based on your average weekly wage and subject to state caps.

Guidance documents often include tables that show how a partial loss of a body part converts to weeks of benefits. New York’s impairment guidelines include an Appendix with “Weeks by Percentage Loss of Use of Body Part” that illustrates the math many adjusters follow. For broad overviews on this method, consumer and industry explainers note that a workers’ comp settlement chart helps estimate what an injured worker should receive once the percentage and wage rate are known.

Remember, settlement numbers also account for disputes, future medical, return-to-work prospects, and setoffs. A chart is a baseline, not your final number.

State-by-State Differences and Examples

Because workers’ compensation is state law, no single payout chart applies nationwide. Here are common frameworks and examples to show how the same injury can be valued differently depending on where you live.

New York: Schedule Loss of Use and Impairment Guidelines

New York awards a Schedule Loss of Use (SLU) for permanent impairments to extremities and certain senses. Your doctor (or an independent medical examiner) determines a percentage loss of use for the affected part. The Workers’ Compensation Board explains what an SLU is and what the medical report must include in its official SLU overview.

To calculate your award, the evaluator applies the percentage to the maximum weeks assigned to that part and multiplies by your rate. The methodology and medical criteria are detailed in the 2018 Impairment Guidelines, which also contain a table connecting percentage loss to the appropriate number of weeks. Those weeks, by part, are the backbone of the SLU calculation.

South Carolina: Body Part Values and Rates

South Carolina uses statutory weeks for scheduled parts, combined with your compensation rate, to estimate payouts. Public-facing tools summarize this approach so workers can get a rough estimate before negotiating. One example is a South Carolina workers’ compensation settlement calculator that references rates and body part values. While helpful for ballparks, your specific rating, wage history, and caps will control the precise figure.

North Carolina: Settlement Factors and Charts

North Carolina does not rely solely on a simple chart. Instead, it weighs severity, permanency, and wage loss when arriving at a settlement. A practical explanation notes that settlements are calculated based on several critical factors, so your medical rating and ability to work matter as much as the part injured.

Even so, comparison charts can still help orient injured workers to typical ranges and valuation concepts. For an educational walkthrough, see a North Carolina workers’ comp settlement chart guide that explains how ratings and job impact translate to money in real cases.

Georgia: Impairment, Weeks, and 2025 Updates

Georgia also uses schedules and impairment ratings to calculate PPD. A 2025-focused overview describes how impairment ratings, benefit weeks, and settlement estimates fit together. The takeaway is familiar: your doctor’s permanent impairment rating and the state’s assigned weeks for the part guide the payout, within the state’s weekly caps.

Oklahoma: Chart Guidelines

Oklahoma offers reference charts to promote consistent valuation. A summary explains that the chart provides guidelines for determining settlement amounts by injury type and severity. As with other states, it is a guidepost; individual facts, medical opinions, and wage caps will change the outcome.

Mississippi: Whole Body Impairment Approach

Mississippi often applies whole body impairment ratings rather than a strict schedule for all parts. As one resource notes, the whole body impairment rating can drive how much money you receive. That means vocational impact and medical restrictions—beyond the name of the body part—are central.

Nationwide Comparisons and Averages

Looking across states, consumer guides and firm analyses compare average settlement prices by body part. These articles highlight patterns and outliers that can help you sanity‑check an insurer’s offer. For example, you can explore average workers’ comp settlement prices by body part and injury type and see how severity and job impact move the numbers.

Some law firm explainers publish head‑to‑head comparisons and state “maximums” for a given part, helping you see why offers vary. One New York-centric resource compares New York maximum compensation versus the highest, lowest, and average state values to illustrate the spread. Visual summaries, like body part value infographics, and primers on charts that break down payments by injury type and body part can give context before you dive into your state’s specifics.

Injury Coding That Powers the Chart

Behind every chart is a common language for describing the injury. Carriers and state boards use standardized codes for the part of body injured, nature of injury, and cause. Accurate codes help ensure the right schedule is applied and the correct medical rules are used to rate impairment.

WCIO Injury Description Tables

Nationally, insurers rely on code sets maintained by industry groups. The WCIO’s Injury Description Tables outline Part/Nature/Cause codes widely used for reporting and analytics. When your claim is coded correctly, the valuation logic has a better chance of matching your true injury.

California EAMS Body Part Codes

Some states publish their own coding lists. California’s Division of Workers’ Compensation keeps an EAMS Body Part Codes List specifying body-part identifiers used in state systems. For example, separate codes exist for hand, wrist, shoulder, or specific parts of the ear—precision matters.

Proper coding is not just paperwork. If your injury is coded as “elbow” instead of “shoulder,” or “lower back” instead of “thoracic spine,” the wrong chart, guidelines, or medical specialty might be applied during valuation.

Maryland CompHub Body Part Keys

Even at the state help center level, tools teach how to classify injuries correctly. Maryland’s CompHub provides a Key to Body Parts showing primary, secondary, and third-level body parts for reporting. Using the right descriptors keeps your claim aligned with the right schedule or rating method.

Getting Your Impairment Rating

You only get a permanent rating after you reach maximum medical improvement (MMI)—when your condition is stable and unlikely to change significantly with more treatment. The rating connects your medical outcome to the chart’s weeks or to a whole person percentage, depending on your state and injury type.

Maximum Medical Improvement and Exams

The doctor evaluates your residual loss of function—range of motion limits, strength deficits, sensory loss, pain impacts—and converts that into a percentage using state‑approved guidelines. In New York, the Workers’ Compensation Board’s impairment guidelines set the medical criteria, and the SLU process explains the documentation the medical report must include.

Other states lean on WPI tables, AMA Guides editions, or state-specific medical protocols. The core idea is the same: the medical rating anchors the math for your permanent disability payout.

Functional Capacity Evaluations and Med‑Legal Reports

Insurers sometimes request a functional capacity evaluation (FCE) to measure your safe lifting, carrying, reaching, and endurance. These tests may influence the rating or work restrictions in your case. Learn how FCEs work and how to prepare in our guide to the functional capacity evaluation in workers’ comp.

Your treating doctor or an independent medical examiner will also create a narrative report that insurers rely on when calculating the award. See how these reports drive decisions in our workers’ comp med‑legal report guide. If a report is incomplete or uses the wrong standard, your rating—and payout—can be wrong.

Estimating Your Payout, With Examples

Below are simplified examples to show how charts and ratings convert to money. Your actual numbers will vary by state, part, rating method, wage rate, and caps.

Example: Hand Injury

Assume your state’s schedule assigns a maximum number of weeks for a hand. Your doctor finds a 25% permanent loss of use of the hand at MMI. If your compensation rate is $600/week and the hand is worth 244 weeks in your state, the rough math is: 244 weeks × 25% = 61 weeks. 61 weeks × $600 = $36,600 for the scheduled portion.

This doesn’t include adjustments for prior injuries, apportionment, or vocational factors. It also doesn’t address medical coverage or temporary disability you were paid earlier. For broader context on typical case ranges and how they’re calculated, see our explainer on the average workers’ comp settlement.

Example: Shoulder Injury

Shoulders may be scheduled in some states and unscheduled in others. If scheduled, the method is similar to the hand example. If unscheduled or valued as a whole person percentage, the state’s rules convert the WPI to a dollar value—often considering your age, job demands, and any permanent restrictions. Mississippi resources emphasize that a whole body impairment rating drives the payout, so medical and vocational evidence is key.

Example: Hearing Loss

Hearing is often scheduled. If testing shows a 15% binaural hearing loss, your state’s table assigns weeks for total loss of hearing, and you multiply by 15%. New York’s SLU materials describe how the report must state the percentage of functional use permanently lost, and the impairment guidelines explain the measurement rules. If you’re navigating tinnitus or noise‑induced loss, our workers’ comp hearing loss claim guide covers medical proof and filing steps.

Factors That Increase or Decrease Your Award

Many variables change the final number beyond the body parts chart:

• Percentage loss or WPI: Better or worse range of motion, strength, sensation, and pain can move ratings.

• Average weekly wage and caps: Your comp rate depends on your earnings, but each state has limits.

• Apportionment and prior injuries: Pre‑existing conditions may reduce a new award if properly documented.

• Vocational impact: If you cannot return to your old job or must change careers, some states increase value.

• Future medical: Settlements sometimes include or exclude future care, making numbers look higher or lower.

• Disputes and credibility: Conflicting medical opinions, surveillance, or gaps in care can shrink offers.

Understanding the types of benefits available—medical care, temporary disability, permanent disability, and vocational rehabilitation—helps you evaluate any proposal, not just the schedule piece. Review the basics in our guide to what benefits workers’ comp covers and how the system works in what workers’ compensation is and how it functions.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Even a simple schedule can go off course if the process isn’t handled carefully. Watch for these avoidable mistakes:

• Wrong injury coding: If the part is miscoded, the wrong schedule may be applied. Use resources like the WCIO injury description tables and your state’s coding lists (for example, California’s EAMS body part codes and Maryland’s body part key) to confirm accuracy.

• Premature ratings: Getting rated before MMI can distort your award. You may need updated exams or a second opinion.

• Incomplete medical reports: Make sure range-of-motion measurements, diagnostic imaging, and work restrictions are documented. Our med‑legal report guide explains what strong reports include.

• Ignoring deadlines: Late reporting or filing can jeopardize benefits. See our overview of the workers’ comp time limit to file.

• Accepting early offers: Initial numbers may omit future care or underrate your loss. Compare to state guidelines and neutral calculators first, then negotiate.

Timelines, Deadlines, and When to Seek Legal Help

Act quickly. Report your injury to your employer, seek medical care, and file a formal claim before your state’s deadlines run out. Each state has different time limits, but missing them can be fatal to a claim. Learn the step‑by‑step process in our guide on how to file a workers’ comp claim and the time limits to file.

If your adjuster stops responding, the rating is disputed, or the insurer presses for an exam you’re unsure about, get informed fast. We cover practical escalation steps if your workers’ comp adjuster is not responding and what to expect from an FCE. If a denial arrives, learn the appeals path in our workers’ comp denial appeal guide.

You can also explore a deeper dive into how charts fit into settlement strategy in our earlier post on a payout workers’ compensation body parts chart, and how temporary disability transitions into permanent disability in our guide to temporary vs. permanent disability.

Tools, Calculators, and How to Use Them

Online tools can be a helpful starting point for estimating a scheduled loss or PPD payout. Example resources include a South Carolina calculator that references rates and body part values and clear explainers on how workers’ comp settlement charts work. Articles that break down payments by body part and injury type and compare averages by body part can also help you benchmark.

State‑specific primers from law firms and boards provide context you must apply to any calculator. For example, North Carolina materials emphasizing severity and permanency, Georgia guides on impairment and benefit weeks, and Oklahoma chart guidelines all show why two similar injuries can yield different payouts. New York’s official sources—the SLU page and 2018 impairment guidelines—are essential if your case is in NY.

For visual comparisons and state-by-state contrasts, check a body part value infographic and a New York–anchored breakdown that compares NY maximums to national highs and lows. Keep in mind these tools are educational; your records, rating, wage history, and local statutes control the final number.

Conclusion

A body parts chart gives you a framework: a fixed number of weeks assigned to a part, multiplied by your percentage loss and weekly rate. But charts don’t stand alone. Your state’s rules (schedule vs. WPI), detailed medical evidence, accurate coding, wage caps, and vocational realities all influence the outcome. Use calculators and comparison charts to orient yourself, then verify with official guidelines and your medical reports before negotiating.

If you’re unsure about your rating, whether the right schedule applies, or how a settlement accounts for future care and return‑to‑work limits, you’re not alone. Many injured workers feel overwhelmed by formulas and conflicting opinions. Getting informed—and, when needed, counsel—can prevent costly mistakes and secure the benefits you’re entitled to under the law.

Need help now? Get a free and instant case evaluation by US Work Accident Lawyers. See if your case qualifies within 30-seconds at https://usworkaccidentlawyer.com.

FAQ

What is a payout workers’ compensation body parts chart?

It’s a schedule that assigns a maximum number of benefit weeks to specific body parts (like hand, leg, eye, or hearing). Your doctor’s permanent impairment percentage multiplies those weeks, and then your weekly compensation rate converts weeks into dollars. States differ: some use schedules widely, others rely more on whole person impairment.

How do I calculate my scheduled loss award?

In schedule states, multiply the part’s maximum weeks by your percentage loss of use and then by your weekly comp rate (based on your average weekly wage and state caps). New York’s impairment guidelines include tables mapping percentage loss to weeks, and the SLU overview explains medical documentation requirements.

Are body part charts the same in every state?

No. Schedules and valuation methods vary. Some states, like New York, rely heavily on SLU for extremities and senses. Others, like Mississippi, emphasize whole body impairment ratings. Guides comparing average settlement prices by body part and state maximums show why two similar injuries can produce very different payouts.

Can I use online calculators to know my exact payout?

Calculators are helpful for estimates but aren’t exact. They can’t account for disputed ratings, apportionment, vocational limits, future medical, or settlement strategy. Use them as a starting point—like a South Carolina calculator referencing body part values and rates—then confirm with your state’s official guidance and your medical reports.

What if my rating or coding seems wrong?

Ask for clarification, updated testing, or a second opinion if needed. Make sure the injury is coded correctly using references like the WCIO injury tables, California’s EAMS body part codes, or Maryland’s body part key. If the carrier won’t budge or you face a denial, learn the appeal steps in our appeals guide.