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Workers' Compensation Benefits (TTD, PPD, PTD)

How is the amount of TTD benefits determined?

The benefit is two-thirds (66 2/3%) of the employee's gross average weekly wage, subject to certain limits. The average is based on the employee's wages during the year before the injury or exposure. The rate is fixed at the time of injury, and does not change with changes in the employee's salary or the statewide average weekly wage.

If an employee was working for two or more employers at the time of injury, the TTD rate may be based on the combined gross income from all jobs. This will only apply if the employer for whom he or she was working at the time of the accident or disease had prior knowledge that the employee was working at another job.

If the employee had worked for the employer for only a short time or on a casual basis, it may be appropriate to consider what another person in the job with the same employer would have earned during the previous year.

Under the Workers' Compensation Act, overtime pay is generally not included in the calculation of the average weekly wage. Overtime pay is included, however, under the Workers' Occupational Diseases Act.

TTD benefits for volunteer fire fighters, police and civil defense members or trainees are based on the gross average weekly wage earned in their regular employment if the claim arises under the Workers' Compensation Act.

What is the minimum TTD benefit?

The minimum payment is the gross average weekly wage earned by the employee in the year before the injury or exposure, or the following amounts, whichever is lower.

Single Person: $100.90/week
Married, no children: 105.50/week
One child: 108.30/week
Two children: 113.40/week
Three children: 117.40/week
Four or more children: 124.30/week

What is the maximum TTD benefit?

The maximum TTD benefit can be no more than 133 1/3% of the statewide average weekly wage on the date of the injury or last exposure.

How do I find what the statewide average weekly wage was on the date of an injury or exposure?

The statewide average weekly wage is the average pay earned by all employees, in all occupations, in Illinois. It should be distinguished from the gross average weekly wage, which is the amount an individual earned during the time preceding the injury or last exposure.

The Illinois Department of Employment Security publishes the amount of the wage twice each year. You may call the Industrial Commission for this information.

Permanent Partial Disability (PPD) Benefits

A permanent partial disability is the complete or partial loss or loss of use of a part of the body, or the partial loss of use of the body as a whole.

Loss of use is not specifically defined in the law, but it generally means the employee is unable to do things with the body part or with the body as the whole that he or she was able to do before the injury.

When are PPD benefits paid?

Permanent partial disability benefits are paid only if the job-related injury or disease results in some permanent loss or loss of use of a part of the body or the whole body. Not all injuries and diseases result in permanent partial disability.

PPD benefits will be paid only after the employee's condition has reached a point where it will not improve any more.

How is the amount of PPD benefits determined?

On a case-by-case basis, the Industrial Commission evaluates the physical impairment and the effect of the disability on the injured worker's life. Factors that may be considered include the individual's age, skill, occupation, training, inability to engage in certain kinds of work or activities, pain, stiffness or limitation of motion.

There are two ways in which PPD benefits may be determined. In the first method, the amount depends on the part of the body injured and the extent of the loss. The law places a value on certain body parts, expressed as a number of weeks of compensation for each part. The number of weeks provided for the various parts of the body are listed in the following chart.

If a body part is amputated, or if it cannot be used at all because of the injury, the employee is paid at his or her weekly rate for the number of weeks the law has set. Compensation for a partial loss of use is calculated by multiplying the percentage of loss by the number of weeks listed.

Alternately, if the disability imposes certain limitations on an employee, he or she may be entitled to the percentage of 500 weeks that the partial disability bears to total disability.

How are disabilities not listed on the chart compensated?

An employee who sustains a permanent injury or impairment to parts of the body not listed in the chart is entitled to the percentage of 500 weeks that the partial disability bears to total disability.

Is a work-related loss of hearing compensable?

The benefits for hearing loss due to an accident or a trauma are detailed on the chart.

Hearing loss due to exposure to continuous noise on the job may also be compensable. An employee who has been exposed to noise levels specified in the law for enough time to cause a loss of hearing may be entitled to benefits. The method of rating the loss is provided in the law.

How is the weekly PPD benefit determined?

The benefit is 60% of the employee's gross average weekly wage, subject to certain limits.

What is the minimum PPD benefit?

The benefit is the gross average weekly wage actually earned by the employee in the year before the injury or exposure, or one of the following amounts, whichever is lower.

Single person: $80.90/week

Married, no children: $83.20/week

One child: $86.10/week

Two children: $88.90/week

Three children: $91.80/week

Four or more children: $96.90/week

What is the maximum PPD benefit?

The maximum benefit is calculated using a formula established by law and published by the Industrial Commission. The rate is based on rate of increase in the statewide average wage.

The maximum benefit is 60% of the employee's average weekly wage, or the published maximum PPD rate, whichever is lower.

What if an injury causes a disfigurement?

An employee who suffers a serious and permanent disfigurement to the hand, head, face, neck, arms, legs below the knee, or chest above the armpits as a result of a job-related injury is entitled to benefits for up to 150 weeks at the PPD rate.

An employee may not collect compensation for disfigurement and PPD benefits for the same body part.

Unless a settlement has been reached at an earlier date, the employee must wait at least six months from the day of injury for a hearing to determine if a disfigurement resulting from the accident is serious and permanent.

What if an employee cannot return to the same occupation after an injury or exposure and cannot earn as much money?

The employee may be entitled to receive a wage differential. The wage differential is two-thirds of the difference between the amount the injured worker is able to earn and the amount he or she would be earning in the occupation in which the employee worked at the time of the accident.

An employee may be compensated for either the loss of wages or a permanent disability related to the same injury or exposure.

Permanent Partial Disability Benefits For 100% Loss of Use

Body part	Weeks Paid
The thumb	70
The 1st (or index) finger	40
The 2nd finger	35
The 3rd finger	25
The 4th finger	20
The great toe	35
Each other toe	12
The hand	190
The arm	235
The foot	155
The leg	200
The loss of one testicle	50
The loss of both testicles	150
The sight of one eye	150
The removal of one eye	160

The hearing of one ear:
Due to an accident or trauma	50
Due to an occupational disease	100
The hearing of both ears	200

Fractures resulting in permanent disability:	Not less than
Skull fracture	6
Fracture of a facial bone	2
Fracture of a vertebra	6
Fracture of a spine or transverse process	3
Removal of a kidney, spleen or lung	10

Loss of a part of the thumb, finger or toe up to the first joint from the tip is considered loss of one-half the digit, e.g., 35 weeks for half a thumb. Loss beyond the first joint is considered 100% loss of the digit.

If an arm is amputated above the elbow, the employee is entitled to 250 weeks of compensation. If an arm is amputated at the shoulder joint and no artificial arm can be used, the employee is entitled to 300 weeks of compensation.

If a leg is amputated above the knee, the employee is entitled to 225 weeks. If a leg is amputated at the hip joint and no artificial leg can be used, the employee is entitled to 275 weeks of compensation.

Permanent Total Disability (PTD) Benefits

A permanent total disability is defined as a complete disability which renders the employee permanently unable to do any kind of work for which there is a reasonably stable employment market;

The loss of use of both hands, both arms, both feet, both legs, both eyes, or any two such parts, e.g., one leg and one arm.

How long is the PTD benefit paid?

An employee who is permanently and totally disabled is entitled to benefits for life.

If an employee who has been assigned PTD benefits returns to work or is able to return to work, benefits may be terminated or modified.

How is the PTD benefit determined?

The benefit is two-thirds (66 2/3%) of the employee's gross average weekly wage. The average is based on the employee's wages during the year before the injury or exposure, subject to certain limits.

PTD recipients are also entitled to additional payments four times a year, beginning in the second year after the award, which reflects the increase in the statewide average weekly wage during the preceding year. These payments are made from the Rate Adjustment Fund, administered by the Industrial Commission.

What is the minimum PTD benefit?

The weekly benefit cannot be less than 50% of the statewide average weekly wage at the time of the injury or last exposure.

What is the maximum PTD benefit?

The maximum benefit can be no more than 133 1/3% of the statewide average weekly wage at the time of the injury or last exposure.

Survivors' Benefits

Who is entitled to survivors' benefits?

If the injury or disease results in the death of the employee, full benefits are paid to the spouse and/or children. Benefits are paid to children until age 18; or until age 25 if a full-time student; or, if physically or mentally incapacitated, for the duration of the incapacity. If there is no eligible spouse or child, the benefits will be paid to totally dependent parents.

If the spouse remarries and there are no children at the time of remarriage who are entitled to benefits, the spouse is entitled to a final lump sum payment equal to two years of compensation. All rights to further benefits are extinguished.

In cases where there is no eligible spouse, child or totally dependent parent, benefits may be paid to other survivors, such as partially dependent children, parents, grandparents, grandchildren or other heirs who were at least 50% dependent on the employee. The benefit for such individuals will depend on the degree of their dependency.

How is the amount of the survivors' benefit determined?

The benefit is two-thirds (66 2/3%) of the employee's gross average weekly wage. The average is based on the employee's wages during the year before the injury or exposure, subject to certain limits.

In addition, beneficiaries who have been awarded a survivors' benefit are entitled to payments from the Rate Adjustment Fund in the same manner as those awarded permanent and total disability benefits.