Virginia Workers Comp Settlement Calculator

Workers' Comp in Virginia at a Glance

Workers' compensation claims in Virginia are handled by the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission (VWC), a state agency separate from the courts. The program is set out in Title 65.2 of the Code of Virginia.

Coverage is close to automatic once you're on payroll: every employer and employee in Virginia is "conclusively presumed" to have accepted the Act unless they've opted out in writing ahead of time (Va. Code § 65.2-300). The main carve-out is size — a private employer with fewer than three employees regularly working in the same business in Virginia generally isn't required to carry coverage, though underground coal mine operators don't get this exception and volunteer fire and EMS companies can elect to be covered (Va. Code § 65.2-101). If you were hurt on the job for a business with three or more workers, you're almost certainly covered.

The rest of this page walks through how Virginia calculates weekly checks, how permanent injuries are paid out under the state's own schedule (not the AMA Guides), how settlements get approved, and the deadlines that can end a claim before it starts.

Temporary Disability Benefits

If your injury keeps you out of work entirely, you receive temporary total incapacity (TTD) benefits equal to 66 2/3% of your average weekly wage (AWW), subject to Virginia's statewide minimum and maximum (Va. Code § 65.2-500(A)).

2026 rate caps: effective July 1, 2026, the maximum weekly compensation rate is $1,507.01 and the minimum is $376.75. A cost-of-living adjustment of 2.65% is separately scheduled to take effect October 1, 2026. Source: VWC Notice of 2026 Rates, workcomp.virginia.gov. These figures apply to injuries during the Commission's July 2026–June 2027 rate year; Virginia resets its min/max every July 1, so an injury earlier in 2026 falls under the prior year's figures instead.

Waiting period: the first 7 calendar days of lost time are unpaid; if you're still out of work on the 8th day, benefits start from day 8. If your incapacity lasts more than three weeks, the waiting-period days become retroactively payable, and you're paid from day one of your incapacity (Va. Code § 65.2-509).

Duration: TTD isn't capped by a fixed number of weeks on its own. Instead, Virginia caps total compensation (TTD plus permanent partial disability combined) at 500 weeks, and also caps the dollar total at 500 times the Commonwealth's average weekly wage for the applicable year — except for permanent and total incapacity, certain permanent disability cases, and coal workers' pneumoconiosis deaths, none of which are subject to that ceiling (Va. Code § 65.2-518). If your condition is found to be permanent and total, weekly compensation instead continues for your lifetime without limit (Va. Code § 65.2-500(D)).

Temporary partial disability (TPD): if you can return to work but at reduced wages, you're paid 66 2/3% of the difference between your pre-injury and post-injury average weekly wages, also capped at the Commonwealth's average weekly wage (Va. Code § 65.2-502).

Permanent Partial Disability

Virginia does not use the AMA Guides to price out a permanent injury the way some states do. Instead, it uses its own fixed schedule of weeks per body part, written directly into the statute. Your doctor rates the percentage of permanent loss of use of the body part, that percentage is applied to the body part's scheduled weeks, and the result is paid at the same 66 2/3%-of-AWW rate (subject to the same min/max) used for TTD (Va. Code § 65.2-503(B), (D)).

Here's Virginia's own schedule for some of the most common body parts:

Source: Va. Code § 65.2-503(B). Partial loss is paid proportionately — for example, losing the first phalanx of a finger or thumb is treated as half the digit's compensation, and losing more than the first phalanx is treated as loss of the whole digit.

Timing matters here: PPD compensation is payable only after your TTD payments end — it isn't paid on top of active TTD checks. It can run at the same time as TPD payments under § 65.2-502, but when it does, each combined week of payment counts as two weeks against the overall 500-week cap discussed above (Va. Code § 65.2-503(E)).

Use the PPD calculator below to plug in a body part and impairment percentage and see how Virginia's statutory schedule applies to your situation.

Permanent Total Disability

Virginia treats certain injuries as permanent and total automatically: the loss of both hands, both arms, both feet, both legs, both eyes, or any two of these (from the same accident, or as a compensable consequence of it) (Va. Code § 65.2-503(C)). In these cases, compensation is paid weekly at the same 66 2/3%-of-AWW rate for the rest of the worker's life, with no 500-week or dollar cap (Va. Code § 65.2-500(D)).

How Settlements Work in Virginia

Virginia workers' comp claims can be resolved by a settlement agreement between the employee and the employer/insurer, but the agreement is not enforceable on its own. It must be submitted to and approved by the Commission, which will approve it only when a Commissioner is "clearly of the opinion" that the deal is in the best interests of the employee (or the employee's dependents in a death claim). The employer or carrier must file the signed settlement memorandum with the Commission within 14 calendar days of it being fully executed. Once approved, the agreement becomes enforceable as a Commission award (Va. Code § 65.2-701).

Virginia settlements can resolve indemnity (wage-loss) benefits, and can also close out future medical treatment for the injury depending on what the parties and the Commission agree to — but nothing is final until the Commission signs off.

Deadlines

• Notice to employer: report the injury to your employer within 30 days of the accident, or within 60 days of being told an illness is an occupational disease.
• Claim filing deadline: file your formal claim with the Commission within 2 years of the date of accident. For most occupational diseases, the deadline is 2 years from when you're told the disease is work-related, and no more than 5 years from your last workplace exposure.

Source: VWC Injured Workers guidance, workcomp.virginia.gov. Missing either deadline can end your right to benefits, so don't wait to report an injury or file if your employer or its insurer isn't cooperating.

Medical Care

Once you report an injury, your employer must furnish medical treatment free of charge for as long as necessary. You don't get free choice of any doctor in Virginia — instead, your employer (or its insurer) gives you a panel of at least three physicians, and you choose your treating doctor from that list (Va. Code § 65.2-603). If your employer doesn't offer a panel, or the panel doesn't meet the statutory requirements, you generally have more freedom to select your own treating physician — the VWC's injured-worker guidance addresses this directly.

Worked Example (Hypothetical Only)

Say an injured worker in Virginia has an average weekly wage of $1,200 before the injury.

This is a simplified hypothetical to show the math, not an estimate of what any real claim is worth. Actual claims depend on your medical records, average weekly wage calculation, whether you have permanent restrictions, and how your case is rated — use the calculator above with your own numbers, and talk to your claims examiner or an attorney about your specific situation.