What is your average weekly wage — and why one number controls everything
Your average weekly wage is what you earned, on average, per week before you got hurt. Every state computes it from your actual pre-injury pay records, and nearly every dollar the system will ever send you is a percentage of it. Temporary disability checks: a percentage of AWW. Partial-wage-loss checks: a formula built on AWW. Permanent disability in most states: AWW again. Settlement value: driven by the weekly rate, which is driven by AWW.
That's why this article exists. In a claim, most numbers get argued about loudly — the injury, the restrictions, the treatment. AWW gets computed once, quietly, by the insurer's adjuster in the first weeks, and then multiplied for years. If the adjuster leaves out your overtime, misses your second job, or averages in weeks you didn't work, the error compounds through every check that follows. The good news is the mirror image: AWW is arithmetic on payroll records, so an error is provable with documents you can get, and the fix is generally a recalculation request to the insurer or the state agency — not a lawsuit.
Two working definitions before the math. Your AWW is the gross (pre-tax) average — comp math starts from gross wages, not take-home pay. Your compensation rate is the check amount produced by applying your state's percentage to the AWW, subject to a state maximum. Both are defined in the glossary, and how the percentages and caps play out check-by-check is the subject of how much workers' comp pays. This article is about the input.
The two formula families: 13-week states and 52-week states
Every state writes its own AWW statute, but almost all of the verified ones fall into two families.
The 13-week family looks at roughly the last quarter before your injury. Florida's statute is the clean example: if you worked substantially the whole of the 13 weeks before the accident — Florida reads that as at least 75% of your customary full-time hours — your AWW is one-thirteenth of the total wages you earned in the 13 calendar weeks before the week of the accident. Note the detail buried in that sentence: the week you got hurt doesn't count. The 13-week window ends the week before. Texas uses the same family — wages over the 13 weeks immediately preceding the injury, divided by 13 — and Georgia's board likewise computes from the 13 weeks before the injury. Add up thirteen weeks of gross pay, divide by 13, done.
The 52-week family looks at the whole prior year. New York's statute sets AWW at one fifty-second of your average annual earnings — and for full-year workers it builds the annual figure from your average daily wage: 260 times the daily wage if you customarily worked five days a week, 300 times if you worked six. Ohio is also a full-year state: AWW is based on your average weekly wage over the year before the injury, and the statute orders weeks of unemployment caused by "sickness, industrial depression, strike, lockout, or other cause beyond the employee's control" to be thrown out before averaging.
Neither family is inherently better for you. The 13-week average is more current — a recent raise counts fully — but a slow quarter drags it down. The 52-week average smooths seasonal swings but dilutes a recent raise. What matters is that your state's method gets applied exactly as written, exclusions and all.
| State | Wage period | Formula family | Concurrent (second) jobs? | Short-tenure fallback |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 13 weeks before the accident week (accident week excluded) | 13-week average — total wages ÷ 13 | Yes — but you must report the second job's earnings | Similar employee, then "full-time weekly wages" method |
| Texas | 13 weeks immediately before the injury | 13-week average — wages paid ÷ 13 | Yes — you file a Multiple Employment Wage Statement | Similar employee, then "fair, just, and reasonable" |
| New York | The prior year — annual earnings ÷ 52 (260× or 300× daily wage) | 52-week / annualized | Yes — all covered concurrent employments count | Same-class employee's annual earnings |
| Georgia | 13 weeks before the injury | 13-week average | Not verified — ask the State Board or a lawyer | Similar employee, then full-time weekly wage (per Board summary) |
| Ohio | The year before the injury, with involuntary no-work weeks removed | Full-year average | Not verified — check with the BWC | "Substantial justice" method where the standard math is inequitable |
Where a cell says "not verified," that's honest: we publish only what we confirmed against the statute or the state agency, and those points we couldn't. Other states use variations — some average the highest-paid quarters, some use different windows — so if your state isn't in this table, start from your state's guide and the agency's own worksheet. For Texas specifically, the dollar caps and percentages change every fiscal year; the mechanism above is stable, and the current-year numbers live in the Texas guide.
What counts as wages — overtime, bonuses, second jobs, and benefits
The single most consequential idea in AWW law: "wages" means more than your base hourly rate. The formulas run on the total amount of wages you actually earned in the window, and in the verified states that total is bigger than base pay in at least four ways.
Overtime. Florida's statute averages "the total amount of wages" earned over the 13 weeks. Overtime you actually worked in that window is part of the total — it does not get stripped out to a hypothetical 40-hour week. Texas is built the same way: all wages paid over the 13 weeks go into the average. If your pay stubs show overtime in the window and the insurer's AWW works out to exactly your base rate times 40, something got dropped.
Bonuses and extra pay earned in the window. The same "total wages" logic reaches pay beyond the hourly rate. The exact treatment of an annual bonus that lands inside a 13-week window varies by state and by how the bonus was earned, so hedge here — but the starting presumption is that gross earnings in the window count, and it's the insurer's job to point to a statute excluding something, not yours to justify including it.
Second jobs. Verified in three states and covered fully below: Florida, Texas, and New York all count wages from concurrent employment. The catch is who has to raise it — in Florida and Texas, you.
Fringe benefits the employer stops providing. Texas has the clearest verified rule: nonpecuniary wages — think housing, meals, or similar benefits provided in kind — stay out of your AWW only while the employer keeps providing them after the injury. The moment the employer cuts the benefit off, its value must be added to your AWW. Carriers often leave it out permanently. If you lost employer-provided housing, a vehicle, or meals after your injury, that loss may belong in your Texas AWW from the cutoff forward — mechanism per Texas Labor Code §408.045, details in the Texas guide.
AWW is computed from gross wages — before taxes and deductions. Your comp checks will look closer to your old take-home than to your old gross, because in most states they're a two-thirds-of-gross benefit that's generally not taxed. Don't compare the check to your gross paycheck and panic; compare the insurer's AWW to your actual gross earnings. That's the number to audit.
What generally doesn't count: reimbursements that just cover your actual expenses, and in Texas, fringe benefits the employer continues. New York adds one worker-friendly wrinkle worth knowing: for workers under 25, the statute lets expected wage growth be considered, because a 22-year-old apprentice's last year of earnings understates the wages the injury is really costing.
The math, worked in full: a Florida 13-week example
Here is the entire Florida computation, start to finish, with an overtime wrinkle included. Say you earned $1,000 a week for 10 of the 13 weeks before your accident week, and $1,300 a week for 3 weeks when you worked overtime.
Step one, total the window: 10 × $1,000 = $10,000, and 3 × $1,300 = $3,900. Total wages = $10,000 + $3,900 = $13,900.
Step two, divide by 13: $13,900 ÷ 13 = $1,069.23. That's the AWW — and notice it's higher than the $1,000 base week, because the overtime weeks are in the total.
Step three, apply the benefit percentage. Florida's temporary total disability rate is 66⅔% of AWW: 0.666667 × $1,069.23 = $712.82 per week.
Step four, check the cap. For a 2026 date of injury, Florida's maximum comp rate is $1,358 per week. $712.82 is under it, so the cap doesn't bite and the check is $712.82.
Now see what the most common error does to this exact worker. Strip the overtime and average only base pay: 13 × $1,000 = $13,000, ÷ 13 = $1,000 AWW, × 66⅔% = a $666.67 check instead of $712.82. About $46 a week, quietly, for as long as the checks run. That's what "they excluded my overtime" costs. You can run your own 13-week or 52-week average — with your real stubs — in the wage-loss calculator.
For contrast, the New York version of step one and two: a five-day-a-week worker whose average daily wage over the prior year was $240 has annual earnings of 260 × $240 = $62,400, so AWW = $62,400 ÷ 52 = $1,200, and the total-disability rate is ⅔ × $1,200 = $800 per week — under New York's $1,222.42 maximum for injuries from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026, so no cap.
Second jobs: the $10,400-a-year omission
If you worked two jobs when you got hurt, this is the most expensive section of the article. In the verified states, wages from your other job belong in your AWW — the benefit is supposed to replace your whole lost earning power, not just the paycheck from the employer where the injury happened.
The verified rules: New York's statute says AWW is calculated on wages "from all concurrent employments covered under this chapter." Florida counts concurrent employment too — but the statute puts the burden on you to provide the second job's earnings information, and if you don't, you waive interest, penalties, and attorney's fees on that portion. Texas counts multiple employment as well, and you claim it by filing a Multiple Employment Wage Statement with the second job's wages, limited to wages reportable for federal income tax.
Read those three rules again and the pattern jumps out: the second job counts, but in Florida and Texas nobody will count it for you. The adjuster gets a wage statement from the employer where you got hurt. That employer has no idea you deliver on weekends. Unless you speak up — with pay stubs — your AWW gets built on half your earnings. This is exactly why the missed second job is error number two in the list below, and it's the same reporting duty that runs through working while on workers' comp: the system counts your other work when you report it, and punishes silence.
Here's the cost, worked in New York numbers. Take the $1,200-AWW worker from the last section, and add a covered second job paying $300 a week. Combined AWW = $1,200 + $300 = $1,500. Correct total-disability rate = ⅔ × $1,500 = $1,000 per week. If the second job gets missed, the rate is $800. The underpayment is $200 every week — $200 × 52 = $10,400 a year, for one unreported pay stub.
Send the adjuster your second job's pay records as soon as the claim opens — in writing, so there's a record you disclosed. In Florida the statute penalizes late disclosure on that portion of the claim; in Texas the Multiple Employment Wage Statement is the vehicle. And keep the story consistent: if you keep working the second job while collecting checks, that has its own reporting rules — read working while on workers' comp before you assume anything.
New to the job? The fallback methods that protect short-tenure workers
The standard formulas assume you have a full window of wage history — 13 weeks, or a year. Plenty of injured workers don't. Hurt in your third week on the job, a mechanical 13-week average would divide three weeks of pay by thirteen and produce a starvation number. Every verified state has statutory fallbacks precisely so that doesn't happen. They come in a ladder.
The practical takeaway: if you were hurt early in a job and your weekly check looks like a fraction of what the job actually pays, ask — in writing — which statutory method the insurer used and why. The fallback ladder is law, not a favor.
The four ways AWW gets computed wrong
These aren't exotic disputes. They're the recurring, document-provable errors, each one grounded in statutes quoted above.
Florida's §440.14 averages the total wages earned over the 13 weeks; Texas averages all wages paid over its 13 weeks. Overtime actually worked in the window belongs in the total. The tell: your computed AWW equals base rate × 40 despite overtime on your stubs. In the worked example above, this error costs about $46 a week.
New York counts all covered concurrent employments; Florida and Texas count them only when you report them — MEWS form in Texas, earnings info to the carrier in Florida. The adjuster only sees the injury employer's payroll, so this error is silent by default. Priced above: $10,400 a year in the New York example.
Florida excludes the accident week and requires ≥75% of customary hours before the standard method even applies. Ohio orders weeks you couldn't work — sickness, layoff, strike, anything beyond your control — eliminated before averaging the year. An adjuster who mechanically divides by 13 or 52 averages your zeros into your wage and understates the AWW.
Three weeks of stubs divided by thirteen is not a legal method anywhere we verified. The similar-employee rungs and the fairness backstops — Texas "fair, just, and reasonable," Florida "full-time weekly wages," Ohio "substantial justice" — exist for exactly this case. If your tenure was short and your rate is tiny, this is the first thing to check.
A fifth, Texas-specific error rides along: fringe benefits the employer stopped providing after the injury — the §408.045 rule from the wages section — left out of the AWW permanently instead of added back from the cutoff. If you lost in-kind benefits after a Texas injury, put it on your audit list too.
Maximums and minimums: when your AWW stops mattering
Every state caps the weekly check. The cap doesn't change your AWW — it limits the check the AWW would otherwise produce. That distinction matters at settlement time, so know both numbers.
The verified caps, with their effective dates — these change on a schedule, so check the date against your date of injury:
| State | Maximum weekly rate | Applies to | How it updates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | $1,295 (2025 injuries) · $1,358 (2026 injuries) | Date of injury in that calendar year | Set at 100% of the statewide average weekly wage for the injury year; minimum $20/week (or full actual wage if under $20) |
| New York | $1,222.42 (7/1/2025–6/30/2026) · $1,281.50 (7/1/2026–6/30/2027) | Date of injury in that window | Reset each July 1 at ⅔ of the prior calendar year's statewide AWW; minimums $325 and $384.45 respectively |
| Georgia | $800 | TTD, per the 7/1/2023 amendment; unchanged through the Board's 2025 revision | By legislative amendment, not an automatic index |
| Texas | See the Texas guide | Set by state fiscal year | Indexed to the state average weekly wage; current figures in the Texas guide |
Georgia shows how a cap bites. AWW of $1,500 → 66⅔% = $1,000 — but Georgia's maximum is $800, so the check is $800. Run the algebra backward and the cap binds for any Georgia AWW above $1,200, because 0.666667 × $1,200 = $800. A Georgia worker earning $1,250 a week and one earning $2,500 a week get the same $800 check.
If your rate is already at the maximum, an AWW error isn't costing you anything on this week's check — but it can still cost you later, because some benefits and most settlement negotiations key off the true AWW, not the capped rate. Get the AWW right on paper even when the cap hides the difference; the settlement estimator shows how the weekly rate drives the numbers a settlement is built from.
One aging note, on purpose: the dollar figures above are tied to dates of injury and effective windows, not to "this year." A 2025 Florida injury keeps the $1,295 cap even after 2026 begins. When you check your own cap, match the table's effective dates to your date of injury, or pull the current schedule from your state agency via your state's guide.
How to check your AWW — and get it fixed
Here's the calm part. An AWW dispute is the most winnable fight in workers' comp, because it's arithmetic on records. No dueling doctors, no credibility contest — pay stubs, a statute, and a calculator. The fix is usually a recalculation request, and it goes like this.
"I'm requesting a recalculation of my average weekly wage on claim [number]. My gross wages for the statutory period, per the attached pay stubs, total $[X], which produces an AWW of $[Y] — the notice shows $[Z]. It appears [overtime in the period was excluded / my concurrent employment at [employer] was not included / weeks I did not work were averaged in]. Please recalculate, adjust my rate, and pay the difference on all past checks. Attached: [stubs / second-job stubs / wage statement]."
Why this works: it's specific, documented, and asks for exactly what the statute provides — which makes agreeing easier than fighting.
When is this a lawyer question instead? Honestly: usually it isn't. A clean overtime or wrong-window error with stubs in hand is a letter, not a retainer. Where advice earns its fee is the contested fallback-method fight — arguing "fair and just" for an irregular work history — or an insurer that refuses a documented recalculation. If that's where you are, a free case review costs nothing, and since AWW drives the value of everything downstream, it's worth resolving before you talk settlement numbers with anything close to a signature.
Frequently asked questions
Rebuild the number first — it's arithmetic on your own pay stubs, and the wage-loss calculator does the averaging. If the insurer won't correct a documented error, or your work history needs a fairness-method argument, a consultation is free and your stubs are most of the file.
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