How Much Do Florida Workers’ Compensation Benefits Cost?

Discover how Florida calculates compensation for lost income as a consequence of a job accident.

A job injury may have a significant impact on your life, affecting not just your health but also your career, money, and general well-being. The Florida workers’ compensation system is intended to pay you for part of your losses while also assisting you in returning to work as quickly as feasible. (To get the benefits outlined below, you must submit a Florida workers’ compensation claim and demonstrate that your injury or sickness was caused by your job.)

Can You Get COVID-19 Workers’ Comp Benefits in Florida?

In Florida, you may be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits if you contracted an occupational disease while working, but only if the illness was caused by the specific nature of your job—that is, your job presented a hazard that was different from the “usual run of occupations,” or the incidence of the disease was significantly higher than usual in your job.

According to a Florida government order, “frontline” state personnel (those who interface with the public in person) shall get workers’ compensation payments for COVID-19, regardless of other probable causes of the condition. Unlike most other states, Florida has not implemented legislation to make it simpler for other employees in high-risk occupations to get workers’ compensation payments for COVID-19 without having to establish that the condition was obtained at work. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation did release a memorandum informing insurers that first responders, healthcare professionals, and others who develop COVID-19 as a result of work-related exposure are entitled for benefits under state law. However, it would still be up to these individuals to give proof that they were unwell as a result of exposure at work rather than elsewhere in their life.

Benefits for Temporary Disability

If you need time away from work to recuperate from a job-related accident or illness, you may be eligible for temporary total disability payments under Florida workers’ compensation. Unless your injury prevents you from working for more than 21 days, you will not be eligible for these benefits for the first seven days off.

Temporary total disability payments are calculated as two-thirds of your typical weekly earnings before to the accident, up to a legal limit that is changed yearly. The maximum weekly benefit for injuries in 2020 is $971. (To view the limits for earlier years, visit the Division of Workers’ Compensation website and look at this chart of maximum benefit amounts.)

The benefit rate is greater for particularly catastrophic injuries, such as paralysis or blindness: 80% of the employee’s pre-injury salary for the first six months, with no limit. The legal weekly minimum is $20.

Temporary complete disability compensation will be paid until the first of three circumstances occurs:

Your doctor has cleared you to return to work.
your doctor determines your health will not improve even with more medical treatment (a stage known as “maximum medical improvement,” or MMI); or you’ve surpassed the time limit for temporary disability benefits.

According to Florida law, temporary handicapped employees cannot collect these benefits for more than two years (Fla. Stat. Ann. 440.14). However, the state’s supreme court ruled in Westphal v. City of St. Petersburg, 194 So.3d 311 (Fla. 2016) that the 104-week limit is unconstitutional when used to cut off benefits for someone who has reached that limit but hasn’t reached MMI and is still totally disabled; the court stated that the appropriate fix would be to apply the previous 260-week limit in that situation.

If your disease hasn’t progressed to MMI but your doctor says you may return to work with certain limitations, you may be eligible for temporary partial disability benefits (such as not lifting heavy objects or using a keyboard for limited periods). If you earn less while working with these limitations than you did previously, you will get 80% of the difference between your current earnings and 80% of your pre-injury income. Assume you used to earn $1,000 each week but now only make $600. To earn $200, remove $600 from 80% of $1,000 (or $800). You’d then get 80% of $200, or $160 every week.

Benefits for Permanent Impairment

Once your medical treatment is finished (or six weeks before your temporary total disability benefits are set to expire if you haven’t yet reached the MMI stage), your doctor will evaluate you to see if you have any long-term medical conditions or lost function as a result of your injury (called a “impairment”).

If you can work to some level, the doctor will utilize a timetable to give you a % impairment rating. According to Florida law, this rating will then be used to assess how long your permanent impairment compensation will endure.

The weekly benefit amount will be 75% of your temporary total disability rate (up to the same legal limit), but it will be lowered in half if you earn as least as much as you did before your accident.

If you know your impairment rating, you may use Florida’s convenient impairment benefits calculator to determine how much you’ll get each week and for how long.

Benefits for Permanent Total Disability

If your doctor determines that you have a permanent impairment that prevents you from working (including sedentary employment), you will be eligible for permanent total disability benefits at the same rate as you were for temporary total disability benefits. These benefits will last until you reach the age of 75 (or for the rest of your life if you do not qualify for Social Security).

Certain catastrophic injuries, such as amputation of an arm or limb or severe brain damage, are thought to result in permanent complete impairment.

Additional Advantages

Additional benefits provided under Florida workers’ compensation include:

Medical advantages. Workers’ compensation covers any medical care required to treat a work-related injury or sickness, as long as it is recommended by the treating doctor and approved by the insurance company. You are also entitled to reimbursement for the cost of transportation to and from doctor’s visits, as well as the cost of recommended medication. (For additional information, check our page on how to seek workers’ compensation medical care.)
Rehabilitation for the workforce. If you are unable to return to your previous work, you may be eligible for job placement services, vocational counseling, and other assistance in finding new employment. If you need further training or education to attain a good job, workers’ compensation may cover it, but only for 26 or 52 weeks.
Benefits upon death. When an employee dies as a consequence of a work-related accident or sickness, death benefits may be paid to the worker’s spouse, children, or other dependant relatives. The benefit amount is determined by the number of dependents, although it cannot exceed two-thirds of the worker’s average weekly pay (up to the same restrictions as for temporary total disability benefits) or $150,000 in total. Workers’ compensation will also cover funeral and burial costs up to $7,500.

Workers’ Compensation Benefit Restrictions

As you can see, workers’ compensation only covers a percentage of your lost income (albeit the fact that workers’ compensation payouts are normally tax-free helps). Furthermore, you are not entitled to compensation for your pain and suffering as a result of your injuries. While this may seem to be unjust, it is part of the workers’ compensation system’s trade-off. The perk is that you may collect benefits fast without having to launch a lawsuit or establish that your employer was at fault for your injury. The disadvantage is that you cannot recover the whole amount of your losses. (However, under very restricted circumstances, you may be able to bring a case outside of the workers’ compensation system to obtain compensation for your losses, including pain and suffering.)