The Average Workers’ Comp Settlement in Pennsylvania

Workers’ Compensation sees thousands of injured workers make claims for their medical care and lost wage benefits each year.  There are metrics assigned to these claims, capping certain parts of the claim and ensuring fair values are paid to everyone.  However, people often want to know what they can expect in their case by looking at average values.

In Pennsylvania, average payouts are not tracked very well.  Workers’ Comp pays for both medical care costs and lost wages, and the amounts paid can vary widely.  First, medical care costs should be paid to cover even small injuries at work, let alone life-altering injuries with years and years of medical bills.  As such, this value varies so much that looking at averages is unhelpful for determining your possible benefit.  Second, payouts for weekly benefits are capped at the value of the statewide average weekly wage, so that value is more helpful as an indicator of your potential benefit, but your benefit will not usually equal the average.

For help with your particular case, call our Certified Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Specialists at Cardamone Law today at (267) 651-7945 to get a free case review.

What is the Average for Workers’ Compensation Claims in Pennsylvania

Different websites will give you different values for the average settlement, with some claiming it is somewhere in the $20,000-$30,000 range and others breaking things down based on how many limbs are injured or whether the final claim value came from a jury verdict or not.  Because so many settlements are made out of court and because many of them are confidential, it is impossible to determine what the true average is in cases across the Commonwealth.

This might not be the answer you want to hear, but if you are more interested in determining how much your specific claim might be worth, our Philadelphia Workers’ Compensation lawyers can provide a lot more specific information about how claim values are determined and how to go about calculating a settlement for your case.

What is the Average Weekly Wage for Workers’ Comp Claims in Pennsylvania

When workers get injured and cannot work, Workers’ Compensation pays wage-loss benefits as long as you are out of work for over 7 days.  These wages are paid on a weekly basis according to specific rules, allowing you to much more easily anticipate what your wage-loss benefit will be in your case.

Pennsylvania bases weekly wage-loss benefits on the “average weekly wage” (AWW).  This is calculated by looking at the worker’s wages before their injury and taking the average.  This is simple for many workers and can be calculated from weekly pay, pay every other week, or even monthly or yearly salary amounts.  There are also special rules for how to calculate the worker’s AWW if they are seasonal workers or are new to their job.

If you are still able to work after a work-related injury, but earning less than your pre-injury average weekly wage, then you will have a claim for a partial disability check which is 2/3 of the difference between your pre-injury average weekly wage, and any post injury earnings.

Once you have your personal AWW, you can compare it to the rules for caps and pay rates that Pennsylvania uses.  These are instead based on the statewide average weekly wage, which the government sets every year.  In 2024, this statewide weekly average is $1,325.

Cap for High Earners

Workers’ Comp sets the statewide AWW as the cap on wage-loss damages, meaning that your weekly benefit cannot go over this amount.  Typically, wage-loss benefits are paid at 2/3 of your AWW, so this capped amount will be paid to any claimant making $1,987.50 or more per week.

Cap for Middle Earners

The next value to look at is 50% of the statewide AWW: $662.50.  If 2/3 of your salary would be below half of the statewide AWW, then you make that much as your benefit instead, potentially boosting you over 2/3 of your AWW.  This means that if your wages range from $736.11 through $993.75, your weekly benefit will be $662.50.

Cap for Low-Wage Earners

Lastly, the Workers’ Comp Act puts the floor at the lesser of $662.50 or 90% of your AWW.  So if 90% of your AWW is actually under that amount, you will make 90% of your AWW as replacement wages instead.

Average Medical Expenses for Workers’ Comp Claimants in Pennsylvania

Medical care costs paid through Workers’ Comp vary so widely that capturing an average amount will hardly be helpful in projecting how much should be paid in your case.  Workers’ Comp is supposed to cover emergency care for all sorts of injuries, potentially ranging from something like stitches for a cut to casting a broken bone to reattaching a lost limb to years of cancer treatment.

Most injuries are, thankfully, mild to moderate.  This will also skew down the average since most claims will deal with lower-cost injuries.  This provides an unrealistic picture of what Workers’ Compensation can and should cover: everything.

Medical care should be covered in full at no cost to you when you make a Workers’ Comp claim.

Calculating Settlements for Workers’ Compensation in Pennsylvania

When you settle your claim in what is called a “global settlement,” you settle for both the ongoing wage-loss benefits and the total cost of medical care you will need now and going forward, along with any other benefits you should receive.  Because this is such a fact-sensitive assessment, it will require looking at the specific facts of your case rather than looking at averages.

When calculating how much your settlement should cover, we need to project the total cost of medical treatment.  For injuries that will “get better” or improve to 100%, there will be a somewhat predictable end date for the treatment, making calculations easier.  For ongoing care like cancer treatment, this could be a hard calculation and might require talking with doctors and financial experts to help calculate it.

The same is true with wages: if your disability will end, we can project when it will end and calculate the wage-loss benefits through that date.  With ongoing wage-loss benefits, calculating the end date is harder.

The other thing to consider is that many injuries pay additional compensation for specific losses – i.e., amputation or loss of function in a body part.  Because these are listed in the statute as a set number of weeks for each injury, these are much easier to account for in a settlement calculation.

Call Our Workers’ Compensation Lawyers in Pennsylvania for Help Today

For a free case evaluation, contact Cardamone Law’s Bucks County Workers’ Compensation lawyers immediately at (267) 651-7945.