Workers’ comp pays two different checks, computed from the same number — your average weekly wage (AWW). While you’re healing it pays temporary disability; when the doctor says you’re as good as you’ll get, it switches to permanent disability priced by your rating percentage. Different formulas, different caps, and the switch is abrupt. Every figure below is computed by the rating engine at 2026 rates.
Temporary disability: two-thirds of your wage
TD pays two-thirds of gross AWW, tax-free, every two weeks, between the state minimum and the 2026 maximum of $1,764.11/week (Lab. Code §4453). Engine-computed: earn $600/week and TD pays $400; earn $1,200 and it pays $800; earn $1,500 and it pays $1,000. The cap bites above ~$2,646 gross: a $3,000/week earner gets $1,764.11 — 59% of gross, the price of earning past the cap. Payments generally stop at 104 weeks within five years (§4656); run your own number on the TD calculator.
Permanent disability: percentage → weeks → dollars
PD is priced by the schedule: your percentage maps to a statutory number of weeks (§4658), paid at a weekly rate that caps at $290 for 2013+ injuries at the 2026 maximum. Engine-computed totals:
Where the percentage itself comes from — WPI, the ×1.4, occupation, age — is the 2005 PDRS pipeline; price any percentage for any injury year on the money chart.
The P&S cliff
The day you’re declared permanent & stationary, TD ends and PD advances begin — for the $1,200/week earner that’s $800/week dropping to $290/week, a 64% cut with the same bills due. It’s the single most underestimated moment in a claim; TD vs PD walks the whole transition, including the §4650 14-day advance clock.
70% and up: the lifetime layer
Ratings of 70–99% add a life pension after the PD weeks run out — engine-computed at 75% PD with wages at the cap: $115.96/week for life, COLA-adjusted for 2003+ injuries (§4659). A 100% rating pays at the TD rate for life — $800/week on $1,200 AWW. The full math, including how 99% ($260,202.50 over 897.25 weeks) differs from 100%, is in what a rating is worth.
Late checks pay extra
TD must start within 14 days of knowledge plus disability, and every late or short payment adds an automatic 10% under §4650(d) — no petition needed. Unreasonable delay escalates to a §5814 penalty of up to 25%. The payment-clock guide maps every deadline; the §5814 guide prices the fights.
What comp doesn’t pay
No pain-and-suffering, no full wage replacement, and the attorney fee (typically 15%) comes out of the PD money, not on top. What fills the gaps: settlement value beyond the tables (future medical is real money), the medical award itself, and — where an employer retaliated — §132a. Wages below the maximum scale every figure on this page down; nothing here is legal advice.