A schedule loss of use award is one of the few things in a New York workers’ compensation case that is pure arithmetic. Three numbers decide it: the body part, the percentage of function you permanently lost, and what you were earning before the accident. Everything else is argument about those three numbers.
Put them in and see what the statute produces.
How the award is figured
Workers’ Compensation Law § 15(3) assigns a fixed number of weeks to each scheduled member. Your percentage of loss is applied to that number, and the result is multiplied by your weekly compensation rate.
Your weekly rate is two-thirds of your average weekly wage, subject to a maximum and a minimum set by the date of your accident. This is the part people get wrong. The maximum rises every July 1, but the Board is explicit that the rate an injured worker receives is determined by the date of injury and does not increase when a new maximum is adopted. A 2019 accident is stuck with the 2019 cap of $934.11 no matter what the number is today.
The minimum works differently and moves on calendar-year boundaries: it was $150 for years, went to $275 on January 1, 2024, to $325 on January 1, 2025, and is now one-fifth of the state average weekly wage. There is a catch built into it — the minimum is one-fifth of that average or your actual wages, whichever is less. A part-time worker earning $200 a week gets $200, not the statutory floor.
The weeks, by body part
These are set by statute. They are not negotiable, and they are the same for every claimant in New York.
| Body part | Maximum weeks |
|---|---|
| Arm (including shoulder and elbow) | 312 |
| Leg (including hip and knee) | 288 |
| Hand (including wrist and forearm) | 244 |
| Foot (including ankle) | 205 |
| Eye | 160 |
| Hearing, both ears | 150 |
| Thumb | 75 |
| Hearing, one ear | 60 |
| First finger | 46 |
| Great toe | 38 |
| Second finger | 30 |
| Third finger | 25 |
| Other toe | 16 |
| Fourth finger | 15 |
Two things about this table catch people out. There is no separate entry for a shoulder, a knee, a hip or a wrist — a rotator cuff tear is an arm claim and a knee replacement is a leg claim, valued at the full member. And you do not have to lose the limb: permanent total loss of the use of a member is compensated the same as loss of the member itself.
Facial and neck disfigurement is also compensable but is not on this schedule and is not measured in weeks. The Board may award up to $20,000 for serious permanent disfigurement of the face, head or neck, at its discretion.
Where the percentage comes from
This is the number worth fighting over, and it is the only input in the calculator above that is genuinely in dispute in most cases.
Your treating doctor examines you once you have reached maximum medical improvement and files a report stating the percentage of function you have permanently lost, measured against the Board’s Permanent Impairment Guidelines. If the carrier accepts that figure, it is used. If it does not, the carrier sends you to an independent medical examiner who produces a competing number, and a Workers’ Compensation Law Judge decides between them.
Run the difference through the calculator yourself. On an arm at a $900 average weekly wage, every single percentage point is worth roughly $1,870. A treating doctor at 30 percent and an IME at 15 percent are $28,000 apart on one limb. That gap is the whole reason permanency is litigated.
What the calculator does not include
- The attorney’s fee. A fee approved by the Board comes out of the award.
- Reimbursement to your employer for wages it paid you while you were out.
- A prior award on the same member. If you were previously paid a schedule award for the same arm or leg, the carrier gets credit for it.
- Anything about causation. The arithmetic assumes the injury is established and the percentage is accepted. Neither is automatic.
The credit field matters more than people expect. Lost-wage benefits you have already received are subtracted from the award, which is why a worker who was out for a year and a half often finds the check far smaller than the gross figure. Sometimes the award is never made at all, which is a different and more expensive problem.
If your injury is not on the list
The back, the neck, the spine, the head and internal organs are not scheduled members. A permanent injury there is handled through classification and loss of wage earning capacity, which works on an entirely different measure — your lost earning power rather than a fixed number of weeks.
If the same accident injured both, do not assume the spine cancels out the limb. You can be owed a schedule award for the arm and a classification for the back out of one accident, and the Board has resisted that result for years.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average schedule loss of use award in New York?
There is no useful average, and anyone quoting one is guessing. The award is arithmetic: statutory weeks, times your percentage, times your capped weekly rate. A 10 percent finger is a few thousand dollars and a 50 percent arm on a high wage is six figures. The calculator above will tell you more about your own claim than any average could.
How long after the IME report do I get paid?
Once the Board files a decision setting the percentage, the insurer has 10 days to pay. Getting to that decision is the slow part — it takes a permanency report, usually an IME, and often a hearing to resolve the gap between them.
Do I have to pay the money back?
Not in the sense people mean. You are not repaying a loan. But benefits already paid to you during your lost time are credited against the award, so the award is reduced rather than added on top.
Does having surgery increase the award?
Not by itself. The award tracks permanent loss of function, not treatment received. Surgery often matters indirectly, because a joint that needed repair frequently ends up with measurable permanent deficits — but a successful surgery that restores full function can produce a lower percentage, not a higher one.
Can I get a schedule award without surgery?
Yes. What is required is permanent loss of function documented under the Impairment Guidelines after you reach maximum medical improvement. Nothing in the statute conditions an award on having been operated on.
I went back to work full duty. Does that kill the award?
No, and this is the most valuable thing on this page. A schedule award is paid for the permanent loss itself, not for lost wages. You can be back at your job at full pay and still be owed the entire award.
Before you accept a percentage
The calculator shows you what a percentage is worth. Whether the percentage in your file is the right one is a different question, and it is the one that decides what you are paid. Call 718.701.2776 or 800.310.5520.
This page describes New York law in general terms and applies the statutory formula published by the Workers’ Compensation Board. It is an estimate of that arithmetic, not legal advice about your claim, and reading it does not make us your attorneys.
