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New York Comp Pays Medical Care and Two-Thirds of Your Wage, Capped Weekly
A New York workers' compensation lawyer handles your claim before the Workers' Compensation Board, which pays your medical care and part of your wages after a job injury.
Comp pays two-thirds of your average weekly wage, up to $1,281.50 a week for injuries on or after July 1, 2026, no matter who was at fault.
It pays nothing for pain and suffering.
When someone other than your employer caused the injury, such as a property owner, a contractor, or another driver, a separate lawsuit can recover what comp leaves out.
Your employer needs written notice within 30 days, and the claim has to be filed with the Board within two years.
Comp fees are set by the Board and paid out of an award, so nothing is owed up front.
Call (888) 713-6653 for a free review of the comp claim and anything beyond it.
- Written notice to your employer within 30 days under WCL § 18, and a claim with the Board within two years under § 28
- A weekly benefit of two-thirds of your average wage, from $384.45 to $1,281.50 for injuries starting July 1, 2026
- Schedule loss of use awards for permanent damage to an arm, leg, hand, foot, eye, or hearing
- A lawsuit against a third party can add pain and suffering and full lost earnings, with the comp carrier repaid out of it
- Comp attorney fees are approved by the Board and come only out of an award
Medical Care, Weekly Benefits, and Loss-of-Use Awards Under WCL § 15
"For injuries on or after July 1, 2026, the most comp pays is $1,281.50 a week."
Comp benefits come in layers, and each one has its own rules.
- Medical care. Treatment for the work injury is paid by the carrier, and your doctors bill it directly.
- Weekly wage benefits. Two-thirds of your average weekly wage, multiplied by your degree of disability while you recover, within a minimum and maximum set by your date of injury.[1] For injuries from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, the range is $384.45 to $1,281.50.[2]
- Schedule loss of use. A separate award for permanent damage to an arm, leg, hand, foot, finger, toe, eye, or hearing, paid in weeks set by statute and owed even if you return to work. Our page on how a schedule loss of use award is calculated has the full schedule.
- Permanent partial disability for the back, neck, and other body parts. Paid on lost wage-earning capacity, for 225 to 525 weeks depending on how much capacity was lost.
- Death benefits. Weekly payments to a surviving spouse and children, and funeral expenses of up to $12,500 in New York City.[3]
The carrier decides much of this on paper, from a doctor's report and a wage statement, and a wrong wage figure lowers every check for the life of the claim.
The average weekly wage is the number most often wrong in a New York comp file, and it is usually wrong in the carrier's favor. It must be built from pay stubs, overtime, and second jobs before the first hearing. Comp replaces two-thirds of a wage, and a family feels the missing third every week. So the next step is looking for a party besides the employer.
Four Routes a New York Work Injury Claim Can Take
A New York work injury claim follows one of four routes, depending on who else had a hand in it.
Comp Alone, for Injuries Your Employer Controlled
A back injury lifting at a warehouse, a fall in an office, or a repetitive strain from years on a line usually has no outside defendant. The comp claim is the whole case, and the work is getting the right benefit rate, the right medical care, and the right permanency rating. Claims from Queens are heard through the Board's district office at 168-46 91st Avenue in Jamaica, where virtual hearings are the standard and in-person hearings are by appointment.
Comp Plus a Labor Law Case Against the Owner
On a construction site, the property owner and the general contractor are usually not your employer, and Labor Law §§ 240(1) and 241(6) let you sue them while comp keeps paying. Our page on collecting comp and suing on a union job explains how the two run together. The comp carrier holds a lien on the recovery, reduced by its share of the legal costs, and then pays nothing more until the net recovery is used up.[4]
Comp Plus a Claim Against a Driver or a Product Maker
A delivery driver rear-ended on the Long Island Expressway, or a machine operator hurt by a guard that failed, has a claim against the other driver or the manufacturer. Comp pays first in a work-related crash, and no-fault benefits are reduced by what comp pays. The lawsuit against the driver or the company is where pain and suffering and the rest of the lost earnings come from.
Grave Injuries and the Employer's Exposure Under § 11
Comp is the exclusive remedy against your own employer. A third party you sue can bring the employer into the case only if you suffered a grave injury on the statute's list, such as an amputation, paralysis, permanent total blindness, or a brain injury causing permanent total disability, or if the employer signed a contract to indemnify it.[5] Our page on grave injury claims under § 11 covers who that brings to the settlement table.
Which route applies decides who pays, how much, and on what deadline, so it gets answered before the comp claim is even filed.
A Ladder Fall That Became a Labor Law Recovery
Two emergency surgeries on a fractured ankle and a cervical fusion followed one of our New York clients' fall from an A-frame ladder, which wobbled while he was bringing two buckets of compound down from it. Pled under Labor Law § 240(1), the case settled for $1,750,000. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Comp pays medical care and a capped weekly benefit, and a Labor Law case is how the rest of a loss like that gets recovered.
Section 32 Settlements and What a Lump Sum Closes
Most comp claims that settle do it through a waiver agreement under WCL § 32. It binds no one until the Board approves it, and the Board will not approve it until 10 days after it is submitted, so either side can still ask the Board to reject it in that window.[6]
- It closes only what it names. An agreement can settle the wage benefits alone, or the wage benefits and future medical care together.
- Carriers have to make an offer. The Board's guidance requires a settlement offer within two years after the claim is indexed, or six months after a permanency classification, whichever is later.
- Future medical is the expensive line. Closing it trades lifetime treatment for a fixed number, and a Medicare set-aside may be needed when you are on Medicare or expect to be.
A signed and approved § 32 agreement is final, so the medical clause is the line to read twice before you agree to it.
How Much Is a New York Workers' Comp Claim Worth?
The math starts with your average weekly wage. A worker earning $1,500 a week is paid $1,000 a week while totally disabled, because that falls under the cap. A worker earning $2,400 a week is paid only $1,281.50, the maximum for injuries from July 1, 2026.
Permanent injuries add the larger numbers. The Board's own example: a 25 percent loss of use of an arm, at a $900 average weekly wage, is 78 weeks at $600, or $46,800. A back or neck injury that permanently lowers what you can earn is paid by the week for up to 525 weeks under the non-schedule caps.
Attorney fees come out of those awards and only with the Board's approval. Since 2023 the Board has applied a mandatory schedule: for example, 15 percent of a schedule loss of use award beyond what the carrier already paid, and 15 percent of a § 32 settlement.[7] New York's highest court confirmed in 2026 that the schedule is mandatory and that a fee requires an award first.[8]
A third-party lawsuit, where one exists, is usually worth more than the comp claim, because it adds pain and suffering, your full lost earnings, and the earning capacity you will not get back.
The 30-Day Notice and Two-Year Claim Deadlines Under WCL §§ 18 and 28
Two deadlines govern the comp claim itself, and both start on the day of the accident.
- Notice to your employer: 30 days. In writing, signed, and stating the time, place, nature, and cause of the injury. Late notice can be excused if it could not have been given, if the employer already knew, or if the employer was not harmed by the delay.[9]
- The claim with the Board: two years. Filed on the Form C-3, which can be submitted online. For an occupational disease, the two years run from disablement and from when you knew or should have known the job caused it.[10]
- A death claim: two years from the death.
- A lawsuit against a third party: generally three years, and a notice of claim within 90 days if a public body owned the site or the vehicle.
Your employer has its own duty to report the injury to the Board within 10 days, but its report is not your claim. A worker who waits on the employer's paperwork can find the two years gone with no C-3 on file.
Fired or Cut Back for Filing a Comp Claim in New York
WCL § 120 makes it unlawful to fire, refuse to reinstate, or otherwise discriminate against a worker for claiming comp, asking for a claim form, or testifying.[11] The complaint goes to the Board within two years, and the remedies include reinstatement, lost pay, and attorney's fees, with a penalty on the employer that its carrier does not pay.
Write down the dates: when you reported the injury, when you filed, and when the schedule change or the termination came, because the sequence is usually the proof.
How We Run the Board Claim and the Lawsuit Side by Side
Comp moves in weeks and a lawsuit moves in years. We keep both files with one team, so the comp lien, the holiday on future benefits, and the carrier's consent to any settlement are built into the numbers from the start.
- New York-admitted, Queens-based. Don Worley holds New York attorney registration No. 4271706, and the firm works from 32-56 Steinway Street in Astoria.
- Peer recognition for trial work. Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers, the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and the National Trial Lawyers have recognized our attorneys.
- Board-approved fees, paid from the award. Nothing up front on the comp claim, and no fee on a third-party case unless it recovers.
The settlement-consent rule is the one that ends benefits for workers who settle a lawsuit on their own. Our page on the comp lien on a Labor Law recovery explains how the carrier's consent and its share of the costs are handled.