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A doctor or an adjuster mentions a "scheduled loss of use award," and most injured workers hear the phrase for the first time. It applies to permanent job injuries to the arm, leg, hand, foot, eye, or hearing in New York.
The mechanics are simple. New York law assigns a fixed number of weeks of benefits to each body part. Your award is a percentage of those weeks, based on how much permanent function you lost.
Below is the schedule itself, plus the calculation walked through step by step, so you can run the numbers on your own case.
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What a Scheduled Loss of Use Award Is
New York workers' compensation pays two main kinds of permanent disability benefits. Injuries to the spine, head, or internal organs are handled one way. Injuries to the extremities and the senses are handled another way: the schedule.
The schedule lives in Workers' Compensation Law § 15(3). It lists specific body parts and assigns each one a maximum number of weeks of compensation. An arm is worth 312 weeks. A leg is worth 288. The award does not depend on how much work you have missed. It compensates the permanent loss of function itself.
That last point surprises people. You can be back at work full time, earning your full wage, and still receive a scheduled loss of use award. The award pays for the function you lost, not for missed paychecks. A carpenter whose shoulder never regained full rotation has lost something permanent, even if he still swings a hammer every day.
The Schedule: Weeks by Body Part
Here is the schedule under WCL § 15(3). These are the maximum weeks for a 100 percent loss of each body part.
Body Part | Maximum Weeks |
|---|---|
Arm | 312 |
Leg | 288 |
Hand | 244 |
Foot | 205 |
Eye | 160 |
Thumb | 75 |
First (index) finger | 46 |
Second finger | 30 |
Third finger | 25 |
Fourth (pinky) finger | 15 |
Great toe | 38 |
Other toes (each) | 16 |
Hearing, both ears | 150 |
Hearing, one ear | 60 |
Two notes on reading this chart. First, a shoulder injury is rated as a percentage of the arm. A knee or hip injury is rated as a percentage of the leg. The schedule works by limb, not by joint. Second, total loss of use of a hand or foot can sometimes be rated as a percentage of the arm or leg. That happens when the impairment extends above the wrist or ankle.
The Calculation, Step by Step
The formula has three inputs: your loss percentage, the scheduled weeks for the body part, and your weekly compensation rate.
Step one: the percentage. Once you reach maximum medical improvement, meaning your condition has stabilized, your treating doctor evaluates your permanent loss of function. The insurance carrier usually sends you to its own examining doctor too. The two opinions often differ. The Workers' Compensation Board resolves the gap, either by agreement between the parties or by a judge's decision.
Step two: the weeks. Multiply your percentage by the scheduled weeks. A 25 percent loss of use of the arm is 25 percent of 312 weeks, which is 78 weeks.
Step three: the rate. Your weekly rate is two-thirds of your average weekly wage, subject to the state maximum. The maximum adjusts every July 1. For injuries from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025, it was $1,171.46 per week. The Board publishes the current figure each year.
Put it together. Say you earned $1,500 per week before a shoulder injury. Two-thirds of $1,500 is $1,000, which is under the cap, so that is your rate. The Board finds a 25 percent loss of use of the arm. The math: 312 weeks times 0.25 equals 78 weeks, times $1,000 equals $78,000.
One important deduction. Weeks of lost-time benefits the carrier already paid for this injury count against the schedule. If the carrier paid you for 20 weeks while you were out, those 20 weeks come off the 78. The remaining balance is typically paid as a lump sum.
A Worked Example You Can Adapt
Take a hypothetical delivery driver hurt in a crash on the job in Nassau County. He fractures his ankle, has surgery, and returns to work after four months. A year later his doctor finds the ankle has stabilized with permanent stiffness and rates a 30 percent loss of use of the foot.
His average weekly wage was $1,200, so his rate is $800. The foot carries 205 weeks. The calculation: 205 times 0.30 equals 61.5 weeks, times $800 equals $49,200. The carrier paid roughly 17 weeks of benefits while he was out, about $13,600. His scheduled loss award is the balance, about $35,600, on top of what he already received.
To adapt this to your own numbers: find your body part in the chart. Multiply the weeks by the percentage your doctor assigns. Multiply that by two-thirds of your average weekly wage, up to the cap. Then subtract the lost-time weeks already paid. Every scheduled loss award in New York follows that same structure.
Where These Cases Are Won or Lost
The percentage drives everything. On a 312-week arm at a $1,000 rate, the gap between a 20 percent rating and a 30 percent rating is $31,200. Carriers know this. Their examining doctors frequently rate lower than treating physicians. The Board applies its own impairment guidelines, and the medical record has to support the rating under those guidelines.
That is why the early steps matter even when the injury seems minor. Report the injury to your employer within 30 days under WCL § 18. File the claim within two years under WCL § 28. Tell your doctors about every limitation, not just the worst one. A range-of-motion deficit that never made it into the chart cannot support a rating later. For more on protecting a comp claim from day one, see our guide to what to do after a New York job-site injury.
One more point for anyone researching this. A scheduled loss award compensates lost function. It does not pay for pain and suffering, and it may not reflect the full career cost of the injury. If someone other than your employer caused the injury, such as a negligent driver, a property owner, or a general contractor on a construction site, a separate third-party lawsuit may exist alongside the comp case. That lawsuit can recover damages comp never pays. We explain how that works in when you can sue beyond workers' comp.
How Schwartzapfel Holbrook Approaches Scheduled Loss Cases
At Schwartzapfel Holbrook, we measure scheduled loss of use findings against the Board's impairment guidelines. We do not simply accept the carrier's examining doctor's number. When the record supports a higher rating, we litigate the difference before the Board. In every work injury case, we also look for a third-party claim running alongside the comp case. That claim is often where the larger recovery sits.
We are selective about the cases we accept across New York City and Long Island. When we take one, we prepare it as if it will be tried, and that preparation is usually why it does not have to be.
