Arizona law provides four main categories of workers' comp benefits. The right ones for you depend on your injury, your wages, and whether you can return to work.
Medical benefits (typically 100% covered)
Arizona workers' comp generally pays 100% of the medical care you need to recover from your work injury — doctor visits, surgery, physical therapy, prescriptions, and travel to appointments. You should not be billed for treatment of an accepted work injury. If you are, that's a sign something is wrong.
Temporary disability — TTD and TPD
While you cannot work (TTD), Arizona pays roughly 66.67% of your Average Monthly Wage, subject to the ICA's annual maximum. If you return at reduced hours or modified duty (TPD), you receive 66.67% of the difference between your pre-injury wage and what you can now earn. There is a 7-day waiting period unless your disability lasts 14+ days, in which case the first week is paid retroactively.
Permanent partial disability (scheduled and unscheduled)
For specific body parts — arm, hand, leg, eye, hearing — Arizona uses a 'scheduled' system: a fixed number of months of payments based on your impairment rating. For back, neck, head, internal, or psychiatric injuries, benefits are 'unscheduled' and based on loss of earning capacity, typically until age 65.
Permanent total disability (PTD)
When a work injury prevents any substantial gainful employment, Arizona provides PTD benefits — 66.67% of Average Monthly Wage, for life, subject to the ICA maximum. PTD is hard to obtain and frequently contested by insurance carriers.
Death benefits for surviving family
If a worker dies from a work-related injury, the surviving spouse and dependents receive a percentage of the worker's Average Monthly Wage. A surviving spouse generally receives 35% (continuing until death or remarriage), with additional amounts for each dependent child until age 18 (longer for students or disabled children). Reasonable burial expenses are also covered.
Third-party claims — separate from workers' comp
Workers' comp does not pay for pain and suffering. But if someone other than your employer caused your injury — a defective product, a negligent subcontractor, a driver who hit you on the job, or an unsafe property owner — you may have a separate personal injury claim that recovers the full range of damages workers' comp doesn't pay.