"How much will I get while I'm off work?"

The formula

Temporary disability = two-thirds of your average weekly earnings, subject to the statutory floor and ceiling.

Find your own year. The § 4453 figures change annually and attach to the date of injury. The exception is § 4661.5: where a temporary total disability payment is made two years or more after the date of injury, it is computed on the figures in effect on the date that payment is made — which is how a worker injured in 2020 and still on TD in 2026 should be at the 2026 maximum, not the 2020 one.

It is not taxed. Which is why two-thirds of gross is often closer to your take-home than it sounds.

It is paid every two weeks, with the first payment due within 14 days of the employer's knowledge of the injury and disability (§ 4650(a)).

And if a payment is late, § 4650(d) adds 10% automatically — "without application." How that works.

Where the number goes wrong

The average weekly wage is where cases are quietly under-paid, because the claims administrator computes it from whatever payroll data it was given.

Overtime counts. Regular overtime is part of your earnings, and a wage calculated on base hours alone is understated.

So do bonuses, commissions, shift differentials, and the value of certain non-cash benefits where they were part of your regular compensation.

Seasonal and irregular work is not supposed to be averaged down unfairly. Where the ordinary methods "cannot reasonably and fairly be applied," § 4453(c)(4) directs that earnings be taken at 100% of the sum that reasonably represents the average weekly earning capacity at the time of injury.

And if you had a second job, it counts. Section 4453(c)(4) requires "due consideration" of "actual earnings from all sources and employments." A worker with two jobs whose rate was computed from one of them is being underpaid. More on that.

Ask for the wage statement the rate was calculated from. Then check it against your actual pay records. This is arithmetic, and it is checkable.

How long it lasts

Generally 104 compensable weeks within five years of the date of injury.

But nine conditions get 240 weeks instead under § 4656(c)(3): hepatitis B, hepatitis C, amputations, severe burns, HIV, high-velocity eye injuries, chemical burns to the eyes, pulmonary fibrosis, and chronic lung disease.

That is 136 additional weeks — up to about $240,000 at the 2026 maximum — and it is missed constantly, because the 104-week stop is an automated counter.

And § 4656(d) is separate from that list, and newer. Added by SB 1127, it gives 240 weeks of temporary disability for a cancer covered by the § 3212.1 presumption — and, unlike § 4656(c), without the five-year window. It is a different provision with a different trigger, and a firefighter or peace officer with a presumptive cancer claim should be measured against it rather than against the (c)(3) list. Details.

What comes after

When your condition becomes permanent and stationary, temporary disability ends and permanent disability begins — a different benefit, on a different and much lower schedule. What that transition means.