Workers’ comp covers more than you think. Medical bills, lost wages, and permanent awards.

Coverage Overview

Four kinds of benefits New York law requires your employer to carry.

Under NY Workers’ Compensation Law § 10, almost every New York employer must carry Workers’ Compensation insurance. When you are hurt on the job or develop an occupational disease, that insurance owes you four distinct kinds of benefits. Here is what each one covers.

1. Medical care

Section 13 of the WC Law makes the carrier pay for all necessary treatment related to your work injury — doctor visits, surgery, hospital care, physical therapy, prescriptions, medical devices, and travel to appointments. You choose your doctor from the Board’s authorized provider list, and the carrier pays the bills directly. There is no deductible and no co-pay for authorized treatment, and an authorized provider cannot bill you for the balance.

2. Lost-wage (cash) benefits

Cash benefits are set by § 15 of the WC Law. If you miss more than seven days of work, you receive two-thirds of your average weekly wage (AWW), multiplied by your degree of disability, up to the state maximum — $1,281.50 per week for injuries in the current benefit year. If you are totally disabled for more than 14 days, you also receive pay for the first waiting week. These temporary benefits continue until you reach maximum medical improvement (MMI) or your case is classified.

3. Permanent disability awards

Permanent injuries trigger additional awards under § 15(3). For an arm, leg, hand, foot, eye, or hearing loss, a doctor assigns a schedule loss of use (SLU) percentage and the Workers’ Compensation Board multiplies it by a statutory week value — for example, 312 weeks for a total arm loss. Permanent injuries to the back, neck, head, or internal organs are classified instead by loss of wage-earning capacity, which pays between 225 and 525 weeks under § 15(3)(w). A permanent total disability pays for life.

4. Death benefits

If a worker dies from a work injury or occupational disease, § 16 pays two-thirds of the worker’s AWW, up to the state maximum, to the surviving spouse and minor children. A spouse is paid for life or until remarriage (with a two-year lump sum on remarriage); children are paid to age 18, or to 23 while enrolled full-time in school. The carrier also pays funeral expenses, up to $12,500 in the New York City metropolitan counties and $10,500 elsewhere in the state.