Atticus offers free, high-quality workers' compensation advice to those injured at work. Our team of Stanford and Harvard trained lawyers has a combined 15+ years of legal experience, and help thousands of Americans get the benefits they deserve each year.
Why trust us?When you get sick or injured on the job, you may be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits until you can return to work. However, it isn’t always clear what steps you should take to start the process.
Whether you plan to file a claim or already started the process, this guide will explain everything you need to know about how workers’ comp works in New York. We’ll explain who qualifies, how the application process should go, which benefits you’re entitled to, and other special considerations.
You may qualify for workers’ comp if you get injured or sick on the job and you work for a New York employer who withholds taxes from your paychecks. You don’t have to be a state resident to get benefits.
Employees at for-profit businesses qualify, including part-time, temporary, and seasonal workers. Volunteers and family members involved in these businesses can also get workers' comp even though they don’t get paid.
Most non-profit employees are eligible for workers' comp unless they perform certain educational or religious duties. People who volunteer for non-profits and don’t get paid don’t qualify for benefits from their non-profits, though, except for volunteer firefighters and first responders.
Independent contractors do not qualify for workers' comp through their employer. However, New York State has strict laws for who qualifies as a contractor versus an employee. Make sure to check New York’s guide to identifying independent contractors, which includes special criteria for construction, transportation, and other industries.
You can qualify for workers' compensation if you have an injury or illness that happens while you’re performing work for your employer. However, you can only qualify for payments if your injury keeps you out of work for at least seven days.
Types of injuries that may qualify you for workers’ comp benefits include
If you aren’t sure whether your condition qualifies for workers' comp, take our two-minute workers’ comp quiz. We’ll get in touch with more information if your situation sounds like it qualifies for New York benefits.
To file for workers’ comp in New York, notify your employer in writing about your injury as soon as possible and file Form C-3 with the Workers' Compensation Board, the state’s workers' comp department.
The Board recommends notifying your employer within 30 days. It might still be possible to get benefits if you wait more than 30 days, but you do need to file Form C-3 within two years of your injury or illness to qualify.
You can choose from three ways to file your Form C-3:
The workers' comp process in New York generally follows these steps:
Below we break down each step in more detail.
Whether you need emergency care or not, you have the right to receive medical treatment for your injury. Make sure to tell the doctor that your injury is related to work and give them your employer’s contact information.
Let your employer know about your condition in a written document that you can print or save, such as an email or physical letter. Always keep that notice for your records in case you have to deal with a dispute.
You should ideally notify your employer within 30 days. Then they must notify their insurance company within 10 days.
File Form C-3 with the Workers' Compensation Board as soon as possible. You must file within two years of the injury date. Within 14 days of receiving notice from your employer, your employer’s workers’ comp insurance company will contact you to tell you if your claim is approved.
If the insurance company wants to challenge your claim, they must notify you within 18 days of your injury or within 10 days of when they received notification from your employer, whichever date is later. The next step would be to attend a hearing. The state board will contact you with more information on your hearing. You’re entitled to work with a workers’ comp lawyer for your hearing.
If your injury or illness keeps you out of work for at least seven days, you’re entitled to workers’ comp payments worth a portion of your lost wages. Payments come from your employer’s insurer and they must generally start payments within 18 days of learning about your injury. You’ll continue to get payments every two weeks.
If you feel that you’re eligible for higher benefits than the Board approved for you, you can appeal the decision. You may benefit from hiring a lawyer to help you.
If your injury requires follow-up appointments or continuing care, you must get all workers' comp-related treatment from a healthcare provider certified by the Workers' Compensation Board. The doctor should create a care plan to help you recover and return to work if possible.
Your employer or their insurance company should be able to help you find doctors. Some workers also qualify for travel expense reimbursement while getting treatment.
Once you have recovered as much as you can from your injury or illness, you’ve reached a level called maximum medical improvement, or MMI. Your workers’ comp doctor will do an evaluation to determine whether you’ve returned to your pre-injury health levels or still have some level of impairment. If the doctor reports that you still have some level of disability, you can qualify for further benefits.
If you disagree with your doctor’s care plan or diagnosis at any point, you should consider talking with a workers’ comp lawyer. They can guide you on how to get a more accurate plan for treatment. Learn more about situations when you should consider a workers’ comp lawyer.
If you recover enough to go back to work in the same capacity as before, your workers’ comp benefits will end. You can qualify for ongoing benefits if your condition impacts your ability to return to work.
New York provides two kinds of workers’ compensation: temporary disability and permanent disability.
These benefits vary based on the degree to which you can work, putting workers’ comp into four total categories:
New York workers' comp provides payments to cover lost wages, worth two-thirds of your pay up to a maximum of $1,145.43 for injuries that happened between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024.
More specifically, lost wage benefits are worth up to two-thirds of your average weekly wage (AWW) and could differ based on your degree of your disability:
⅔ of AWW x % degree of disability = weekly payment
To calculate your benefit amount, your employer will provide the state workers’ compensation board with information on your wages for one year before your accident. The state will use that information to calculate your AWW.
Your workers' comp doctor or an insurance medical examiner will perform an evaluation to determine your degree of disability, which is given as a percentage. For example, if you injure your arm with the degree of disability set at 70%, it means the current functionality of your arm is at 70% of what it was before your injury.
You may receive supplemental payments for certain types of permanent disability. As an example, you could qualify for an additional $20,000 payment if you became permanently disfigured from your condition.
On top of your wage and disability payments, workers' comp will cover medical expenses related to your illness or injury.
Learn more about how much you could get with these New York workers' comp settlement charts.
You will receive your first lost wage payment within 18 days of your illness or injury or 10 days from when your employer’s insurer receives notification, whichever date is later. From there, payments are sent every two weeks.
Since you need to wait almost two weeks from reporting your injury until payments start, it’s important to report your injury and start the process as soon as possible.
If your employer doesn’t notify their insurer quickly, you have two options for taking action:
At that point, if you can’t get in touch with either your employer’s insurance or the Board, contact a workers' comp lawyer to find the right channels. (Atticus can help connect you with an experienced workers’ comp. Fill out our questionnaire to get started.)
In addition to lost wage and medical coverage, New York workers’ compensation includes the following benefits:
No, New York workers' comp benefits aren’t taxable and you won’t have to pay any of them back when tax season comes around.
You can receive payments until you reach your maximum level of recovery, as determined by your doctor. Then if your doctor believes you’re still not at 100% of your pre-injury capacity for work, you can continue receiving workers’ comp payments (permanent disability payments). How long you receive these additional payments will depend on which part of your body was injured and the severity of your injury.
New York law generally categorizes injuries into two types: schedule and non-schedule. Scheduled benefits are for injuries to limbs, hands, feet, your vision, or your hearing. Non-scheduled benefits are for injuries to more central body parts, like your brain, heart, lungs, spine, or pelvis.
The table below shows the maximum limit for New York workers’ comp payments if you have a schedule injury, depending on which body part was injured:
Body part injured
Maximum payment length
