Learn how Illinois determines the amount of compensation you may be entitled to for a work-related injury or sickness, as well as how workers’ compensation eligibility requirements apply if you were exposed to COVID-19 on the job.
A work accident or occupational illness may have a significant impact on your life, affecting not just your health but also your job, money, and general well-being. The Illinois workers’ compensation system is intended to reimburse you for part of your losses and to return you to work as quickly as possible. The benefits you may be entitled to will be determined by your unique circumstances, including your medical condition and how much you earned prior to your accident. This page describes how the most major workers’ compensation payouts in Illinois are calculated.
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Illinois Workers’ Compensation Eligibility Rules for COVID-19 Exposure on the Job
Can you seek workers’ compensation for COVID-19 if you got it on the job? Workers’ compensation in Illinois covers occupational illnesses as well as injuries from workplace accidents. To qualify for benefits for an occupational condition, you must provide medical proof that the illness was caused directly by your employment and that the risk of exposure to the disease at work was higher than the risk faced by the general population. When dealing with a community-wide infectious illness like COVID-19, this might be quite tough.
However, in June 2020, Illinois revised the legislation to make it somewhat simpler to qualify for COVID-19 workers’ compensation payments if you work in healthcare, as a first responder, or in a specified kind of important company (interacting with the public or in a workplace with at least 15 employees). If you were diagnosed with the sickness between March 9, 2020 and December 31, 2020, the law presumes you have an occupational condition unless your employer shows otherwise. Among other types of evidence, your employer can overcome (or “rebut”) that presumption by demonstrating that it fully implemented proper health and safety measures during the relevant time period, in accordance with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and the Illinois Department of Health. (820 Illinois Comp. Stat. 310/1.)
Illinois Temporary Disability Benefits
If you are unable to work while recuperating from a job-related accident or illness, or if your employer is unable to provide you with modified light-duty employment that suits your physical restrictions, you may be eligible for temporary total disability (TTD) payments. Unless you need at least 14 days off work, you will not be eligible for these benefits for the first three missed work days. TTD advantages remain until your doctor determines that your condition has improved as far as it can be improved with therapy (known as “maximum medical improvement,” or MMI).
The amount of your TTD benefits will be two-thirds of your pre-injury average weekly salary, up to a six-month maximum. For the first half of 2020, the maximum was $1,549.07. (On the Illinois benefit rates chart, you may see the maximum and lowest amounts of TTD and other benefits for various dates.)
If you are able to return to light-duty or part-time work while you heal, you may be eligible for temporary partial disability (TPD) payments, which are calculated as two-thirds of the difference between your pre-injury earnings and your current earnings.
For example, you earned $950 a week before to your injury and would have gotten a $50 rise while you were out of work. You now work part-time and make $400 each week. You would take the difference of $1,000 (what you would have made) and $400, which is $600. Then you’d get two-thirds of that amount in PTD benefits, which is $400 a week.
Illinois Permanent Total Disability Benefits
Once you’ve achieved MMI, your doctor will assess you to see whether your accident or occupational sickness has resulted in permanent physical loss or handicap, and if so, to what degree. If you are unable to work or have lost use of both eyes, hands, arms, feet, or legs, you will be regarded permanently and completely incapacitated (or any two of those limbs). In such event, you will get permanent total disability payments for the rest of your life at the same rate as your TTD benefits.
Illinois Permanent Partial Disability Benefits
If you’ve lost use of a part of your body, which generally means you can’t do things you could before your injury, you may be eligible for one of four types of permanent partial disability benefits in Illinois: wage differential benefits, scheduled loss-of-use awards, unscheduled awards, or disfigurement benefits.
Wage Differential Advantages
If you have been allowed to return to work but are earning less than before your accident due to your permanent partial impairment, you may be eligible for a pay differential award. These benefits account for two-thirds of the difference between what you earn in your new work and what you would have earned before your accident. The payments will cease after five years or when you reach the age of 67, whichever comes first.
Awards for Scheduled Loss of Use
If you have lost use of specific parts of your body (such as your eyes, hearing, and extremities), you may be entitled to an award equivalent to 60% of your pre-injury average weekly earnings multiplied by the number of weeks specified in an Illinois law schedule. The timetable, for example, indicates a complete loss of use of a hand at 190 weeks. If you’ve lost 50% of your hand’s usage, the multiplier is 95 weeks. And if your pre-injury earnings were $1,000 each week, you would get $57,000 ($600 x 95).
Awards that are not scheduled
If you have a physical impairment that isn’t listed on the schedule (such as a head, spine, or internal organ injury), you may be eligible for a nonscheduled award of 60% of your pre-injury average weekly wage for a percentage of 500 weeks, based on the disability rating assigned to your condition by your doctor. Assume you suffer a permanent handicap as a consequence of a back injury that is evaluated as a 25% impairment to the body as a whole, and your average weekly pay is $1,000. Your nonscheduled reward would be $600 times 125 weeks (25% of 500 weeks), for a total of $75,000.
Benefits of Disfigurement
If you have a serious and permanent disfigurement to a commonly visible area of your body, such as your face, head, neck, upper chest, arms, or lower legs, you may be entitled to an award equal to 60% of your pre-injury average weekly wage for up to 162 weeks, depending on the severity of the disfigurement.
Illinois Workers’ Compensation Supplements
Other benefits provided under Illinois workers’ compensation include:
Medical advantages. As long as your therapy is permitted, workers’ compensation will pay for any reasonably required medical care linked to a job injury. (Find out how to seek medical care via workers’ compensation.)
Benefits for vocational rehabilitation and maintenance. If you are unable to return to your previous work due to your injuries, you may be eligible for job counseling, training, education, and other aid in your search for new employment. While enrolled in an authorized vocational rehab program, you may be eligible for a maintenance benefit equal to your temporary total disability rate.
Benefits and funeral expenditures. When an employee dies as a consequence of a work-related accident or sickness, the person’s surviving spouse, children, or other dependents may be eligible for death benefits. The benefit is equal to two-thirds of the worker’s weekly average pay. In addition, the family may get up to $8,000 in funeral costs.
Workers’ Compensation Benefit Restrictions
Workers’ compensation, as you can see, only covers a part of your lost salary. Workers’ compensation also does not cover any of your pain and suffering as a result of your injury. While this may seem to be unjust, it is part of the workers’ compensation system’s trade-off. The benefit of workers’ compensation is that you may collect benefits fast without having to file a lawsuit or establish that your employer was at blame for your injuries. The disadvantage is that you cannot be paid for the entire amount of your losses. (However, in certain restricted circumstances, you may be allowed to sue outside of the workers’ compensation system.)
