The California Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) recently announced the minimum and maximum temporary total disability (TTD) will increase on January 1, 2025.
When an employee is injured on the job, workers’ compensation allows the employee to receive temporary disability benefits while being off work and recovering from the injury’s effects.
Temporary disability payments typically are two-thirds of the pre-tax wages the employee will lose while recovering from the job-related injury, up to a statutory maximum amount (which are California’s TTD rates). Those benefit amounts usually change every year (except in 2024, when the rates went unchanged) because the TTD rate must be increased by an amount equal to the percentage increase in the State Average Weekly Wage (SAWW) as compared to the prior year.
The SAWW is the average weekly wage in California paid to employees covered by unemployment insurance for the 12 months ending March 31 in the year preceding the injury, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor. In the 12 months ending March 31, 2024, the SAWW increased from $1,642 to $1,704 — an increase of 3.77 percent.
This means, starting January 1, 2025:
- The minimum TTD rate will increase to $252.03 (from $242.86); and
- The maximum TTD rate will increase to $1,680.29 per week (from $1,619.15 per week).
Under Labor Code Section 4659(c), workers with a date of injury on or after January 1, 2003, who receiving life pension (LP) or permanent total disability (PTD) benefits are also entitled to have their weekly LP or PTD rate adjusted based on the SAWW.
SAWW figures may be verified using the U.S. Department of Labor’s website.
Katie Culliton, Editor, CalChamber
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