There is no fixed number of hours you can or cannot work while receiving workers’ compensation benefits. The system does not set a weekly hour limit. What it does is tie your benefits to your disability classification — which is based on your treating physician’s assessment of what you can physically do. The question is not how many hours you are allowed to work. The question is what your medical restrictions permit and how your earnings from any work you do affect your benefit amount.
If you cannot work at all: Temporary Total Disability
If your treating physician determines that your injury prevents you from working in any capacity, you are classified as Temporarily Totally Disabled. Your benefit is two-thirds of your average weekly wage, up to the statutory maximum of $1,222.43 (adjusted annually) per week for injuries on or after July 1, 2025 You receive this benefit because you cannot work. If you return to work — even part-time, even in a different role — while classified as TTD, you must report the change immediately.
Working while classified as TTD without reporting it creates an overpayment that the carrier will eventually discover and seek to recover. It can also be treated as fraud, which is a felony in New York. If your condition has improved to the point where you can do some work, tell your treating physician. The physician adjusts your disability classification, and your benefits are recalculated accordingly. That is how the system is designed to work.
If you can work in a reduced capacity: Temporary Partial Disability
If your treating physician determines that you can perform some work but not at your full pre-injury capacity, you are classified as Temporarily Partially Disabled. This is the classification that applies to most workers who return to work while still receiving benefits.
Your TPD benefit is two-thirds of the difference between your pre-injury average weekly wage and your current earning capacity. If your AWW was $900 and you can now earn $400 per week in a light-duty role, your TPD benefit is two-thirds of $500, or $333.33 per week. You receive both the wages from the light-duty work and the TPD benefit. The total is less than your pre-injury income, but it is more than either source alone.
The number of hours you work under TPD depends entirely on your medical restrictions. Your treating physician determines what you can do — how many hours, what type of work, what physical limitations apply. There is no statutory cap on hours. A physician might clear you for four hours a day of sedentary work. Another might clear you for six hours of light duty with no lifting over ten pounds. The hours flow from the medical restrictions, not from a rule about hours.
Light duty, modified duty, and employer offers
Your employer may offer you a light-duty or modified-duty position while you are recovering. This is a role with reduced physical demands that accommodates your medical restrictions. Whether to accept the offer is a decision that depends on whether the position is actually consistent with what your physician has authorized.
If the employer offers a position that fits within your medical restrictions and pays a wage, and you decline it without a medical reason, the Board may determine that your earning capacity equals the wages the position would have paid. Your TPD benefit would then be calculated based on that earning capacity, even though you are not actually earning it. Declining a legitimate light-duty offer without a medical basis can reduce your benefits.
If the offered position exceeds your medical restrictions — if it requires lifting, standing, or other activities your physician has prohibited — you are not obligated to accept it. Your treating physician’s assessment of your functional limitations controls, not the employer’s job description.
If you accept a light-duty position and find that the work aggravates your injury, report it to your physician and your employer immediately. Do not push through pain that makes the injury worse. A worsened condition is documented through the medical record and may result in a reclassification back to TTD.
Working a different job while on workers’ comp
If your employer cannot offer a modified-duty position that fits your restrictions, you may be able to work elsewhere. There is no rule that says you can only work for the employer where the injury occurred. But any income you earn must be reported to the carrier and to the Board. Your TPD benefit is adjusted based on your actual earnings, regardless of where those earnings come from.
If you hold concurrent employment — a second job you had before the injury — the income from that job may already be factored into your average weekly wage calculation. If you take a new job after the injury, the earnings from that job affect your earning capacity and your TPD benefit. Report everything. Unreported income is treated as fraud.
What happens when you return to full duty
When your treating physician clears you for full-duty work with no restrictions and you return to your pre-injury position at your pre-injury wages, your wage replacement benefits stop. You are no longer disabled, so there is no lost income to replace. Your medical benefits continue for treatment related to the work injury, but the weekly check ends.
If your physician clears you for full duty but you have a permanent impairment — a knee that does not bend as far as it used to, a back that limits your lifting capacity — you may still be entitled to a Schedule Loss of Use Award or a permanent partial disability classification. Returning to work does not eliminate those benefits. They compensate for the permanent loss, not for the time you missed.
The reporting obligation
Report any return to work — full-time, part-time, light duty, different employer, self-employment — to the carrier and to the Board. Report any change in your hours, your duties, or your wages. Report any income from any source. The carrier is entitled to this information because it directly affects your benefit calculation.
Failing to report is not a gray area. It creates an overpayment that the carrier will recover, and in serious cases, it constitutes fraud. The system is designed to accommodate workers who return to work in a reduced capacity. It adjusts benefits based on what you earn. But it only works if you report accurately.
How Schwartzapfel Holbrook advises clients on return-to-work issues
At Schwartzapfel Holbrook, we advise clients on every aspect of the return-to-work process: evaluating light-duty offers against medical restrictions, calculating how earnings from a modified position affect TPD benefits, and protecting against overpayment claims by ensuring all reporting obligations are met.
The number of hours you can work is not a legal question. It is a medical question answered by your treating physician. The legal question is whether your benefits are being calculated correctly based on what you can and cannot do. That is what we monitor.
Schwartzapfel Holbrook / Fighting For You