How Long Does Workers Comp Last? What the 104-Week Cap Actually Ends

Workers' compensation has no national duration. Your payments last as long as the statute of the state administering your claim allows for the specific benefit category you are being paid under, measured against the version of that statute in force on your date of injury. California and Texas each cap temporary disability at 104 weeks, and Florida caps temporary total at the same figure. Pennsylvania sets no week limit on total disability, then converts it to a 500-week partial cap once an impairment rating comes back below 35 percent. New York places no cap on temporary benefits and caps classified permanent partial benefits between 225 and 525 weeks. Medical treatment runs on a clock of its own, and in Texas the carrier's liability for it cannot be shortened by a settlement.

The national week count was borrowed from a state that may not be yours

No general federal workers' compensation statute covers private employment. The federal programs are narrow: FECA for federal civilian employees, the Longshore Act for maritime work. Everything else is written state by state and administered by a state board.

So when a page says benefits last "three to seven years" without asking where you were hurt, it has done what I spent seven years catching people do with licence numbers: found a real figure on a real document and attached it to the wrong entity.

The strongest argument against what I just wrote is that "it depends on your state" is the least useful sentence on the internet, and the person searching this has rent due. That objection is right about the need and half right about the data: the 104-week temporary cap really is the most common among the largest states, so it travels because it is often correct.

Look at what the borrowing costs. The same 104 weeks means three different things in the three states that use it.

• California allows 104 compensable weeks within five years of the date of injury (Labor Code § 4656). They need not run consecutively: return to work for four months, have surgery, go back out, and the unused weeks remain until the five-year boundary closes. Listed severe conditions, including amputations, severe burns, HIV and chronic lung disease, get 240 weeks.
• Texas measures 104 weeks from the day income benefits begin to accrue, and reaching that date is maximum medical improvement as a matter of statute (Labor Code §§ 401.011(30), 408.102). Payments stop whether or not you have recovered. Spinal surgery, or approval for it, within 12 weeks of that date lets the Division extend the period under § 408.104.
• Florida caps temporary total at 104 weeks and pays 66⅔ percent of the average weekly wage (§ 440.15(2)(a)). When the weeks run out or you reach MMI, whichever comes first, permanent impairment gets determined.

Which board governs your claim, and which year of the rulebook

Until roughly 2021 I would tell people to open the state board's current benefits page and read the numbers off it. I stopped. That page describes today, and a claim is a question about a date in the past. Your weekly rate, week caps and often your appeal rights are set by the statute as it stood on your date of injury.

New York's maximum weekly benefit is $1,281.50 for injuries dated 1 July 2026 through 30 June 2027, set by the Workers' Compensation Board in Subject Number 046-1805 under WCL §§ 2(16) and 15(6). A worker hurt three weeks earlier stays on the prior year's $1,222.42 for the life of that claim. California's maximum is $1,764.11 a week for injuries on or after 1 January 2026, up from $1,680.29, per the Division of Workers' Compensation newsline of 21 November 2025.

The formula underneath differs too. California, New York and Florida pay two-thirds of the average weekly wage. Pennsylvania runs a four-tier schedule set by the Department of Labor and Industry under Sections 105.1 and 105.2 of the Act, in which a worker earning $774.43 or less receives 90 percent of their wage. Texas pays 70 percent of the difference between your average weekly wage and what you can earn after the injury, rising to 75 percent for the first 26 weeks if you earned under $10 an hour (Labor Code § 408.103(a)). A waiting period comes before any of it, and it is not your deadline to report the injury.

Name your benefit before you count weeks

In 2020 I removed a dermatology clinic from the platform because its licence number did not match the register. The number was correct. The register I had searched was a cached export from an earlier year, and the clinic had re-registered under a new entity after a partner left. The listing stayed down four months, and the owner never put it back. I had checked a right number against the wrong version of a document.

That is the same error as reading the 104-week temporary cap when your payment notice says you have been classified with a permanent partial disability. Right number, wrong schedule.

| State | Temporary disability limit | Waiting period, and payback | Weekly rate | |---|---|---|---| | California | 104 compensable weeks in 5 years; 240 for listed severe conditions (§ 4656) | 3 days; paid back if disability exceeds 14 days or you are hospitalised (§ 4652) | Two-thirds of AWW, max $1,764.11 | | Texas | 104 weeks from accrual, which is statutory MMI (§ 408.102) | 7 days; accrues on the 8th, paid from day one at two weeks (§ 408.082) | 70% of wage loss, max $1,271 | | New York | None on temporary; classified PPD 225–525 weeks by lost earning capacity (§ 15(3)(w)) | 7 days; paid from day one if it exceeds 14 days (§ 12) | Two-thirds of AWW × degree of disability, max $1,281.50 | | Pennsylvania | None on total; 500 weeks of partial after an IRE below 35% (Act 111) | 7 days; first seven paid at 14 days (77 P.S. § 601) | Four-tier schedule, max $1,394.00 | | Florida | 104 weeks of temporary total (§ 440.15(2)(a)) | 7 days; paid from day one if it exceeds 21 days (§ 440.12(1)) | 66⅔% of AWW |

Permanent partial benefits are counted differently again. New York's schedule in WCL § 15(3) assigns fixed weeks to each body part regardless of how fast you heal: 312 for an arm, 288 for a leg, 244 for a hand, 205 for a foot, 160 for an eye, 75 for a thumb, 46 for a first finger, 38 for a great toe. A 20 percent scheduled loss of use of the hand is 20 percent of 244 weeks. Backs, necks and psychiatric conditions are not on it, which is why they get classified instead and land in the 225 to 525 week wage-loss band.

What actually moves the end date

Four events change the number on your notice, and none of them is the calendar.

Maximum medical improvement is the first, and treating it as the end of the claim is the mistake I see quoted back at me most. In Texas, MMI ends temporary income benefits and starts impairment income benefits the next day, at three weeks for each percentage point of impairment (Labor Code § 408.121). A 15 percent rating is 45 more weeks. In Florida, MMI closes temporary benefits and opens the determination of permanent impairment. In New York, MMI is when the Board sets both permanent impairment and loss of wage-earning capacity, and the second decides how many weeks you have.

An examination is the second, whether it is the insurer's independent medical examination supplying the MMI date and restrictions, or a formal impairment rating evaluation. Pennsylvania's has a trigger date. Once you have received 104 weeks of total disability compensation, the insurer gets a 60-day window to demand an IRE under Section 306(a.3), added by Act 111 of 2018. The physician must use the AMA Guides, sixth edition, second printing of April 2009. At 35 percent whole-body impairment or above you stay on total disability with no week cap. Below 35 percent your status converts to partial and a 500-week ceiling appears, roughly nine and a half years. The weekly amount does not change. Only the horizon does.

A return-to-work release with restrictions your employer accommodates usually moves you from total to partial, which pays the difference rather than the full rate. A board finding after a contested hearing can move anything.

Medical care and wages stop on different days

I have never adjusted a workers' compensation claim in the United States and never received an indemnity cheque, so I cannot tell you how it feels when one stops. What I can vouch for, after seven years of ringing Athens businesses for a licence number, is the pause before someone answers a question about a document. Ask your claim administrator which section sets your remaining weeks, then listen for it.

Texas Labor Code § 408.021(a) entitles an injured worker to all health care reasonably required by the nature of the injury "as and when needed," and subsection (d) states that the carrier's liability for medical benefits "may not be limited or terminated by agreement or settlement." Your temporary income benefits can expire at 104 weeks while your medical entitlement continues.

Other states use internal limits instead of end dates. California allows no more than 24 chiropractic, 24 occupational therapy and 24 physical therapy visits per industrial injury for injuries on or after 1 January 2004 (Labor Code § 4604.5(c)(1)), with exceptions for written authorisation and post-surgical rehabilitation. Florida keeps care open after overall MMI and charges a $10 copayment per visit, emergency care excepted, under Chapter 440. Pennsylvania's IRE changes wage-loss duration and leaves medical untouched.

A settlement date and a benefit end date are two different dates

A compromise settlement is a transaction that has to be approved, and the approval has its own clock. In New York, a Section 32 waiver agreement has no binding effect until the Board approves it, and under 12 NYCRR 300.36(f) no agreement is approved for ten calendar days after submission. Any party can withdraw during those ten days in writing. Once approval becomes final, the carrier has ten calendar days to send the cheque.

What a settlement covers is separate from when it pays. Some close indemnity only; some close medical too, where state law permits, which is why Texas wrote § 408.021(d) as it did.

Workers' comp, FMLA and short-term disability answer different questions

The People Also Ask box treats these as one topic because they all involve time away from work. They are three systems with three administrators.

| | Workers' compensation | FMLA | Short-term disability | |---|---|---|---| | What it provides | Wage replacement plus medical care for a work injury | Unpaid, job-protected leave, group health continued | Partial wage replacement for an off-the-job condition | | Who runs it | State board and claim administrator | Your employer, under US DOL rules | A private insurer, or a state fund | | How long | By benefit category and state statute; 104 weeks is common | 12 workweeks per 12-month period; 26 for military caregiver leave | Policy-dependent; New York's DBL runs 26 weeks in any 52 | | Eligibility gate | A compensable work injury | 12 months employed, 1,250 hours in the prior year, 50 employees within 75 miles | New York's DBL excludes anything covered by workers' comp | | What it pays | Two-thirds of AWW in most states, to a state maximum | Nothing | New York's DBL pays 50% of AWW, capped at $170 a week |

The FMLA figures come from Department of Labor Fact Sheet #28, the New York ones from WCL §§ 204 and 205. That $170 cap has not moved since 1989, which is why these systems should never be planned as substitutes. FMLA protects your job and pays nothing. Workers' compensation pays, and protects nothing about your job.

The five documents that answer this for you

1. Find your date of injury on your claim notice. Every rule below attaches to it.
2. Read the benefit code on your payment notice. TTD, TPD, PPD, PTD and IIB are different entitlements with different clocks, and the code tells you which one funds your rent.
3. Pull the version of your state's benefit statute or board guide in force on that injury date, rather than the current page.
4. Ask the claim administrator which statute section sets your weekly rate, and how many weeks remain in your current category.
5. Diary your appeal deadline the day any decision arrives. Texas allows 15 days after receipt, excluding weekends and listed holidays (Labor Code § 410.202). California and Pennsylvania both allow 20 days, California from service (Labor Code § 5903, commonly 25 when served by mail in state), Pennsylvania from the circulation date (77 P.S. § 853). New York allows 30 calendar days from the filing date of the judge's decision, on Form RB-89.

If the person on the phone cannot name the section, ask them to send it in writing. A claim administrator who will not put a statute citation in an email is telling you how confident they are in the number.

Questions people ask right after this one

How long can I stay out of work on workers' comp?

For as long as your treating physician certifies disability and your state's benefit category allows. California and Texas cap temporary disability at 104 weeks, Florida caps temporary total at 104 weeks, New York sets no temporary cap. Staying out is medical. Getting paid for it is statutory.

Do workers' comp benefits run out?

Wage benefits can. Temporary categories expire at statutory caps, and New York's classified permanent partial benefits end between 225 and 525 weeks depending on lost wage-earning capacity. Medical benefits often do not. In Texas, the carrier's liability for medical care cannot be terminated by any settlement agreement.

How long does workers' comp take to settle?

There is no statutory timetable, because settlement is voluntary. Most claims become settleable only after maximum medical improvement and an impairment rating, which can take a year or two from injury. Approval adds time: New York bars approval of a Section 32 agreement for ten calendar days after submission.

How long does workers' comp take to pay?

Texas requires the carrier to begin paying or file a written refusal no later than the 15th day after it receives written notice of the injury (Labor Code § 409.021). Pennsylvania requires a first payment within 21 days of the employer's notice. Waiting periods delay the first cheque separately.

Which state board governs my claim?

The board of the state where your claim was filed, which usually follows where you were hired, where you regularly worked, or where the injury happened. Your claim notice names it. That board's statute, in the version effective on your injury date, controls your rate and your week caps.

What benefit type appears on my payment notice?

Look for an abbreviation near the payment amount: TTD or TIB for temporary total, TPD for temporary partial, PPD for permanent partial, PTD for permanent total, IIB for Texas impairment income benefits. That code determines which week limit applies. Two identical injuries can carry different codes.