Workers comp check late, or workers comp stopped paying? Sort that first
Two problems arrive looking identical — an empty mailbox on payday. Sort yours before spending an hour on hold.
Late means the money is owed and has not arrived. Nobody filed anything. In Florida, Georgia and North Carolina the statute adds a percentage penalty to that installment, payable to you, at the same time as the payment — Florida's is 20 percent once a payment is seven days past due, plus 12 percent a year in interest. Your carrier is supposed to add it unasked.
Stopped means somebody filed something with a date on it and a response window attached. A North Carolina carrier cannot simply stop; it applies to the Commission on Form 24, and you get at least 17 days to object. In Pennsylvania the Department of Labor and Industry says the insurer must keep paying during the hearing process unless the judge orders otherwise.
So the sorting test is ten minutes of opening mail — from the insurer, the employer and your state agency — looking for a form number. Find one and its date is the most important number in your claim.
If the check came but the amount looks wrong, the usual cause is the waiting period — the opening days of disability every state withholds. Next is a wrong average weekly wage, the pre-injury figure your benefit is built from. Both are below; the average weekly wage article covers the second.
When the first check is due, and how often after that
You cannot call a check late until you know when it was due. Each state counts from a specific event — the employer's notice, the day disability began, or an award.
| State | First payment due | Interval | Cite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | Day 14 after the employer is notified — pay or deny | Biweekly | Fla. Stat. §440.20(2)(a) |
| New York | Day 14 of disability, or within 4 days after; outer limit day 18, or 10 days after employer knowledge, whichever is greater | Biweekly | NY WCL §25(1)(a), (2)(a) |
| North Carolina | Day 14 after written or actual notice | Weekly, unless the Commission orders otherwise | N.C.G.S. §97-18(b) |
| Georgia | Day 21 after employer knowledge — all income benefits then due are paid | Weekly | O.C.G.A. §34-9-221, per the Board |
| Pennsylvania | Day 21 after the later of employer knowledge of the disability date or the date it began | Not verified | Act §406.1(a), per Labor & Industry |
| Texas | By day 15 after written notice: begin paying, or refuse in writing to the Division and employee | Weekly, as benefits accrue | Tex. Lab. Code §409.021 |
| Illinois | No official source reached | Weekly | 820 ILCS 305/8(b) |
| Ohio | Earlier of 14 days after an unappealed administrator's order, employer waiver, expiry of the appeal deadline, or a hearing officer's order | Not verified | R.C. 4123.511(H) |
The blanks are deliberate: no official source, no number. Your state guide carries the specifics.
Florida counts a direct deposit as paid when the funds become available for withdrawal by the employee, not when the carrier pressed send (Fla. Stat. §440.20(1)(a)). Georgia uses a mailing rule instead. Mind the gap between statute and agency plain talk, too: Florida's statute says day 14, while its Division brochure tells workers to expect the check within 21 days.
The missing first week: waiting periods and retroactive pay
Here is why so many first checks look wrong. Every state reviewed makes you wait out the start of your disability unpaid. That money is withheld, not forfeited — cross a second threshold and the held days become payable.
| State | Waiting period | First week paid back once disability lasts | Cite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | First 7 days unpaid; benefits begin day 8 | More than 21 days | DFS system guide |
| New York | No compensation for the first 7 days | Beyond 14 days — then from the date of disability | NY WCL §12 |
| North Carolina | 7 calendar days | More than 21 days | N.C.G.S. §97-28 |
| Georgia | More than seven days of lost time | More than 21 consecutive days | SBWC handbook |
| Illinois | 3 working days; pay begins day 4 | 14 days or more — then from the day after the accident | 820 ILCS 305/8(b) |
| Texas | Benefits start day 8; first week unpaid | Two weeks (14 days) or more | Legislature handout; TDI |
| Ohio | No compensation for the first week | 2 or more consecutive weeks — paid after the second | R.C. 4123.55; Ohio BWC |
| Pennsylvania | More than seven calendar days including weekends; payable from day 8 | No official source | Labor & Industry, LIBC-100 |
Run your dates against that. If you crossed the threshold and the back week never came, you are owed money — and in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina that shortfall is itself a late installment, so the penalties below attach. If the amount is wrong for another reason, check the wage-loss calculator and how much workers' comp pays.
The penalty table: what a late check costs the insurer
In some states the price of a late check is statutory — a percentage of it, payable to you.
| State | First payment due | Late penalty | Automatic? | Interest | Cite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | Day 14 after notice | 20% of any installment unpaid 7 days after due, with or without an award | Yes — self-executing, paid to the employee | 12%/yr from the due date; interest due or $5, whichever is greater | Fla. Stat. §440.20(2)(a), (6)(a), (7), (8) |
| Georgia | Day 21 after employer knowledge | 15% when benefits due without an award are not paid when due | Yes — paid at the same time, on top of accrued benefits | Not verified | O.C.G.A. §34-9-221, per SBWC manuals |
| North Carolina | Day 14 after notice | 10% added to any installment unpaid 14 days after due | Yes, unless the Commission excuses it for conditions beyond the employer's control | Not verified | N.C.G.S. §97-18(g) |
| New York | Day 14 of disability | 20% if unpaid 25 days after due; a separate 20% plus a $50 assessment on an award unpaid 10 days, the $50 to the treasury | The 25-day penalty reads as automatic; the award penalty is Board-imposed | Not verified | NY WCL §25(3)(e), (3)(f) |
| Pennsylvania | Day 21 | Up to 10% of the amount awarded and interest accrued; up to 50% for unreasonable or excessive delay | No — ceilings, awarded by a judge on a Penalty Petition (LIBC-378) | 10%/yr on due and unpaid compensation | Act §435(d)(i), §406.1(a), per the Commonwealth Court |
| Illinois | Not verified | §19(l): $30/day withheld, capped at $10,000, after written demand. §19(k): 50% of the amount payable, for vexatious delay or intentional underpayment | Neither. 19(l) needs a demand and an award; 19(k) a vexatious-conduct finding | Not verified | 820 ILCS 305/19(k), 19(l) |
| Texas | Day 15 — pay or refuse in writing | None to the worker. Failing to pay week to week is an administrative violation of up to $25,000 per day per occurrence, paid to the Division | No — state enforcement | Not verified | Tex. Lab. Code §409.021, §415.002(a)(16)–(17), §415.021 |
| Ohio | Per the order and appeal machinery | None found. R.C. 4123.511 carries no penalty or interest; the remedy is a C-86 motion | Not applicable | Not verified | R.C. 4123.511 |
Three groups. Florida, Georgia and North Carolina attach the penalty themselves, and it belongs to you. Pennsylvania and Illinois hold real money behind a filing you must make. Texas fines the carrier and keeps it; Ohio has none.
Florida, Georgia, North Carolina: the penalty attaches by itself
These three write the consequence into the statute as an addition to the payment. No hearing or motion is needed to make it exist.
Florida — 20 percent at seven days past due. If an installment payable without an award "is not paid within 7 days after it becomes due," then "there shall be added to such unpaid installment a penalty of an amount equal to 20 percent of the unpaid installment, which shall be paid at the same time as, but in addition to, such installment" (Fla. Stat. §440.20(6)(a)). Section 440.20(7) applies the same 20 percent under an award, paid directly to the employee, and §440.20(8) adds interest at 12 percent a year from the due date — the interest owed or $5, whichever is greater.
Georgia — 15 percent at the 21-day mark. The State Board states the rule in its own manuals. The supervisor's manual: on the 21st day after employer knowledge of an injury, all benefits then due shall be paid or a 15 percent penalty shall be added. The claims-adjuster reference tells adjusters it is paid at the same time, on top of the accrued benefits. The statute is O.C.G.A. §34-9-221.
North Carolina — 10 percent at fourteen days past due. "If any installment of compensation is not paid within 14 days after it becomes due, there shall be added to such unpaid installment an amount equal to ten per centum (10%) thereof, which shall be paid at the same time as, but in addition to, such installment" (N.C.G.S. §97-18(g)). One condition: no penalty where the Commission excuses the nonpayment after the employer shows conditions beyond its control made payment impossible. Narrow door, and the employer must walk through it.
New York reads the same way at 25 days — an additional 20 percent "for the benefit of the injured worker" (WCL §25(3)(e)).
"Automatic" describes the law, not the accounting system. The statute adds the penalty; a human still has to cut the check. Workers who never mention it routinely get the late payment with nothing added. Naming the statute and the number in writing is what turns it into money.
Pennsylvania and Illinois: the money is real, but you have to ask
Pennsylvania. The Act permits penalties against employers and insurers of "a sum not exceeding ten per centum of the amount awarded and interest accrued and payable: Provided, however, That such penalty may be increased to fifty per centum in cases of unreasonable or excessive delays" — Section 435(d)(i), as quoted by the Commonwealth Court. A judge decides, up to a ceiling. Interest runs separately at 10 percent a year on due and unpaid compensation under Section 406.1(a), also quoted by the Commonwealth Court. The route is a Penalty Petition on Form LIBC-378, whose checkboxes include "Penalties (For violation of the act, rules and regulations)" and "Reinstate compensation benefits."
Illinois has two penalty sections, and they are not interchangeable.
- Section 19(l) — the late-payment penalty. It runs on a written demand. Demand benefits in writing under Section 8(a) or 8(b) and the employer has 14 days to state in writing why payment is delayed. If it then fails, refuses or unreasonably delays without good and just cause, the Arbitrator or Commission "shall allow to the employee additional compensation in the sum of $30 per day for each day that the benefits … have been so withheld or refused, not to exceed $10,000." Then the sentence to remember: "A delay in payment of 14 days or more shall create a rebuttable presumption of unreasonable delay" (820 ILCS 305/19(l)). Rebuttable presumption means the law assumes the delay was unreasonable and the employer must prove otherwise.
- Section 19(k) — the bad-faith penalty. Larger and harder: additional compensation equal to 50 percent of the amount payable at the time of the award, for "unreasonable or vexatious delay of payment or intentional underpayment of compensation." Vexatious means pursued to wear you down, not merely slow.
So 19(l) is the workhorse; the presumption does the heavy lifting. Section 19(k) carries a tail — Section 16 attaches attorney's fees to a party "guilty of unreasonable or vexatious delay, intentional under-payment of compensation benefits, or … frivolous defenses" within paragraph (k)'s purview (820 ILCS 305/16).
"Claim number [number], date of injury [date]. My disability payment due [date] has not been received as of [today's date]. This is my written demand for payment of benefits. Please state in writing the reason for the delay and the date payment will issue. I am also requesting the statutory penalty and interest."
Why this works: in Illinois this is the demand §19(l) requires, starting the employer's 14 days to explain. Elsewhere it turns a phone complaint into a dated record.
Texas and Ohio: when the penalty does not reach you
Texas has the largest number on this page and you will never see a dollar of it. A carrier that "fails or refuses to pay benefits from week to week as and when due directly to the person entitled to the benefits" commits an administrative violation under Tex. Lab. Code §415.002(a)(16); failing to pay an order awarding benefits is a separate violation under §415.002(a)(17). The size: "The administrative penalty shall not exceed $25,000 per day per occurrence. Each day of noncompliance constitutes a separate violation" (§415.021). It is assessed by the commissioner and remitted to the Division. A penalty that never reaches the worker is not your remedy.
The Texas lever that does reach you is speed. Under Tex. Lab. Code §410.032, a benefit review officer shall consider a written or verbal request for an interlocutory order for the payment of benefits, and must "issue the interlocutory order not later than the third day after the date of receipt of the request." An interlocutory order is a temporary order that starts payment while the dispute continues — faster than any penalty process here. Ask for it by name.
Ohio's honest answer is that there is no automatic penalty. R.C. 4123.511 says when payments must commence after an order and contains no late-payment penalty and no interest provision. The route is procedural: Form C-86, "Motion," used when no other form applies and you need a decision from the Bureau or the Industrial Commission — including a request for temporary total compensation, the benefit paid while you cannot work.
Ohio also builds in a lawful pause: under R.C. 4123.511(L), if a hearing officer or the Commission misses its own decision deadline, payments cease until that decision issues. From the mailbox that looks like a wrongful stop. It is not.
Florida also fines carriers whose overall timeliness falls below state standards, and that money goes to a state trust fund. Georgia's 12 percent interest on late medical charges is payable to the provider. When someone cites a penalty, ask who receives the money.
Why checks lawfully stop — and the form that does it
Benefits do end legitimately. The reasons that hold up:
- A release to full duty — a numbered Georgia WC-2 reason, requiring ten days' notice.
- Maximum medical improvement — MMI, where your condition has stabilized and treatment will not improve it. See the MMI and ratings guide.
- The statutory maximum weeks — the WC-2 counts maximum temporary total, maximum temporary partial and permanent partial paid in full separately. How long comp lasts has them.
- Return to work at equal or higher pay, restricted or not.
- A suspension or termination petition the tribunal grants. Filed is not granted.
- A missed mandatory form — a stop that reverses once you file it.
Get the Florida names right, because articles and adjusters both mix them up. Florida's instrument for denying or stopping benefits is DFS-F2-DWC-12, "Notice of Denial," which requires a detailed reason. DWC-4 is the "Notice of Action/Change" — not a denial. Georgia uses WC-2 to commence, recommence or suspend, and WC-3 to contest.
Pennsylvania's notices are equally specific. LIBC-751, the suspension or modification notice, covers return-to-work stops: the employer files it within seven days, and you have 20 days from receiving it to challenge.
Where a form is required before benefits end, no form means no lawful stop — it is a late payment wearing a different hat. Ask the carrier in writing to name the form, its date and the agency. One that cannot has answered you.
A stopped check is often not a lawful stop yet
North Carolina. A carrier that wants your compensation to end must apply to the Industrial Commission on Form 24, "Application to Terminate or Suspend Payment of Compensation." You may object in writing to the Commission within 14 days of the date the employer's notice is filed (N.C.G.S. §97-18.1). Because it comes by mail, Rule 404 makes the employer write on the form a date 17 days from the day it deposited the Form 24 — 14 statutory days plus three — and the form tells you so.
What follows is fast by this system's standards. The Commission holds an informal hearing within 25 days of receiving the Form 24, no more than 30 minutes — ten to each side, five for rebuttal — and decides within five days. If it cannot resolve the application informally, the statute says your compensation continues pending the formal hearing decision. An unresolved Form 24 does not stop your checks.
Pennsylvania. Labor and Industry tells injured workers in its own pamphlet that the insurer or employer must continue to pay benefits during the hearing process unless the judge orders otherwise. That is supersedeas — the order a judge grants to suspend payment during litigation. Until one is granted, a filed termination petition is a request, not a result.
What you actually do this week
Each step builds the record the next needs.
- 1
Fix your due date
Use the first table. Half of these disputes are calendar disputes.
- 2
Open every envelope
A Form 24, WC-2, LIBC-751 or DFS-F2-DWC-12 changes what you do next.
- 3
Call the adjuster once
For facts, not pleading. Confirm in writing the same day.
- 4
Send the written demand
Dated, with the claim number. In Illinois it triggers §19(l).
- 5
File with the agency
Free, and faster than a call back.
"This is [name], claim number [number]. My payment due [date] hasn't arrived, and I'm writing your answers down. Was it issued, on what date, by what method, and when will the funds be available? And has any form been filed to suspend, terminate or deny my benefits — if so, what number, which agency, what date?"
Why this works: it asks only for facts you are entitled to, and forces the late-versus-stopped question open. Adjuster tactics covers the rest; what-to-say has more scripts.
Then use your state's official route. All free, none needing a lawyer:
- Florida: the Employee Assistance Office reviews stopped benefits and files a Petition for Benefits with you, free — 1-800-342-1741.
- New York: Form RFA-1W, for wrongly stopped payments and awards unpaid past ten days — (877) 632-4996.
- North Carolina: object to a Form 24 in writing; Form 33 requests a hearing, Form 23 reinstates payments — 919-807-2501, 800-688-8349.
- Georgia: Form WC-14 — claim, hearing and mediation in one, with checkboxes for penalties — 404-656-3818, 1-800-533-0682.
- Pennsylvania: a Penalty Petition on LIBC-378 through WCAIS — 1-844-237-6316, or 800-482-2383 in state.
- Illinois: written demand, then an expedited §19(b) hearing — Chicago 312-814-6500, Springfield 217-785-7087, Collinsville 618-346-3484.
- Texas: a benefit review conference, asking for the §410.032 interlocutory order.
- Ohio: Form C-86, for temporary total compensation or anything no other form covers.
When you do not need a lawyer. One late check with a clerical cause is not a case. A payment issued a few days behind, an address change that bounced a check, a new adjuster on the file — a call and an email fix those, and you can request the automatic penalty yourself.
When a pattern is a case. Repeated lateness after a written demand, a stop with no form behind it, a termination petition you must answer, or a delay long enough to put Illinois §19(k) or Pennsylvania's 50 percent tier in play. That is where the do-I-need-a-lawyer tool earns its keep, and the denied-claims guide and what happens at a hearing show the filing. Terms sit in the glossary.
Patience tolls no deadline and builds no record. In Illinois the 14-day presumption cannot start until you demand payment in writing.
Phone calls leave no trace you control. Call, then email the same day: here is what you told me, here is what I am asking for.
It looks like more insurance paperwork. It is an application to stop your money, with your deadline printed on it.
Florida's 20 percent, Georgia's 15 percent and North Carolina's 10 percent are statutory and payable to you. Nobody volunteers them.
Frequently asked questions
That is the pattern worth a free consultation, especially where a judge must award the penalty before you see it. Bring your payment dates, the demand you sent, and any form the carrier filed.
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