California compensates psychiatric injury — burnout, anxiety, depression from the job — but the Legislature built the narrowest gate in workers’ comp around it. Labor Code §3208.3 was written to filter stress claims, and most of the litigation happens at the gate, not the rating. Here’s the gate, the SB 863 overlay, and — for claims that get through — the engine-computed money.
The §3208.3 gates
Six months on the job. No psych claim unless the worker was employed six months (not necessarily continuous) — unless the injury came from a sudden and extraordinary employment condition. Predominant cause. Actual events of employment must be the predominant cause — more than all other causes combined — of the psychiatric injury. For victims of violent acts, the standard drops to substantial cause (35–40%). The personnel-action defense. No compensation where the injury was substantially caused by a lawful, nondiscriminatory, good-faith personnel action — the criticism, demotion, or termination fight that decides many of these cases. And claims filed after termination face their own bar with narrow exceptions.
Pure stress vs. psych on a physical injury
A pure psychiatric claim (stress is the injury) runs the §3208.3 gates above. A compensable-consequence psych claim (depression after the back surgery) faces a different wall for 2013+ dates: §4660.1(c) bars the psychiatric add-on to PD for most physical injuries — treatment yes, rating increase no — except for victims of violent acts and catastrophic injuries. The mechanics of how psych rates when it does count are in how psychiatric injuries are rated.
What a compensable claim pays
Psych rates from the GAF score in the P&S report, converted to WPI on the schedule’s own table, then through the standard pipeline. Engine-computed at the 2026 maximum (age 37–41, clerical-to-heavy occupational range, before apportionment):
Run any GAF on the GAF → WPI calculator — the conversion table and both occupational endpoints compute live. Note how fast the numbers climb: a five-point GAF difference in the med-legal report is tens of thousands of dollars, which is why the psych QME’s scoring gets litigated line by line.
The realities
Stress claims are records-heavy — prior treatment, personnel files, and sub-rosa all come in through the QME process — and apportionment to non-industrial life stressors is standard defense work. TD applies while the worker is off on doctor’s orders, the tax rules are the same as any claim, and retaliation for filing is its own claim under §132a. Estimates for informational use; not legal advice.