NYS Workers’ Compensation Weekly Wage Increase

The NYS Department of Labor has announced that the average weekly wage for 2014 was $1,266.44. As of July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016, the maximum weekly benefit rate for Workers’ Compensation claims with dates of accidents or dates of disablements will be $844.29. This represents a 4.4% increase over the prior benefit rate of $808.65. See here for the NYS WCB Subject No. 046-761 announcement.

This benefit has more than doubled in the past eight years following the reforms of 2007. This change will lead to increases in claim costs for most employers in New York State whether they are a self-insured Workers’ Compensation plan of fully-insured.

Scheduled Loss of Use Awards are calculated by multiplying the temporary total disability rate by weeks of compensation. For high wage earners, the value of scheduled losses have doubled, significantly increasing the costs to business owners in New York State.