What Is a Schedule Loss of Use Award in New York Workers’ Comp?
A scheduled loss of use award compensates a New York worker for permanent loss of function in a specific body part, such as an arm, leg, hand, foot, eye, or ear. The award equals a percentage of loss multiplied by the number of weeks New York assigns to that body part, paid at two-thirds of your average weekly wage. The percentage comes from a medical opinion, and because the insurance carrier’s doctor and your own doctor rarely reach the same number, the amount is often decided by a judge.
A schedule loss of use award, shortened to SLU in nearly every document you will receive, is one of the few parts of the New York workers’ compensation system that runs on arithmetic. The weeks are fixed by statute and the wage figure is already in your file, which leaves exactly one variable in the equation. That variable is a percentage assigned by a doctor, and it is where the entire value of an extremity claim is won or lost.
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Key Takeaways About Schedule Loss of Use in New York
- SLU applies to limbs and sensory organs. Back, neck, and internal injuries are handled through a different mechanism entirely.
- The number of weeks for each body part is set by statute and does not change from case to case.
- The percentage of loss is a medical opinion, which means it is contestable, and it usually is contested.
- SLU is assessed once you reach maximum medical improvement, not while you are still healing.
- Temporary benefits already paid are subtracted from the final award, so the check is smaller than the calculation suggests.
How Many Weeks Does New York Assign to Each Body Part?
Workers’ Compensation Law § 15 fixes the number of weeks for each scheduled member. These figures are the multiplier behind every SLU award in the state.
| Body part | Weeks |
| Arm | 312 |
| Leg | 288 |
| Hand | 244 |
| Foot | 205 |
| Eye | 160 |
| Thumb | 75 |
| First finger | 46 |
| Second finger | 30 |
| Third finger | 25 |
| Fourth finger | 15 |
| Great toe | 38 |
| Any other toe | 16 |
| Hearing, one ear | 60 |
| Hearing, both ears | 150 |
Shoulders are valued as part of the arm, and hips as part of the leg, which surprises claimants who expect a shoulder injury to have its own line.
How Is the Payout Calculated?
Three numbers multiplied together: the statutory weeks for the body part, the percentage of loss assigned to it, and your weekly benefit rate.
The Board’s own schedule loss of use page walks through an example. A worker with an average weekly wage of $900 who is found to have a 25 percent schedule loss of use of the arm receives 25 percent of 312 weeks, which is 78 weeks, paid at two-thirds of $900, or $600 per week. That comes to $46,800.
Why is the check smaller than the calculation?
Because temporary benefits already paid are credited against the award. If that same worker collected $18,000 in weekly benefits while out of work recovering, the remaining balance is what gets paid at the end. Wages the employer continued to pay during the absence are deducted as well.
Does a long recovery add anything?
It can. Section 15(4-a) sets a healing period for each body part, and when temporary total disability runs longer than that period, the extra weeks are added to the schedule award rather than simply absorbed. The healing period for an arm is 32 weeks, for a leg 40 weeks, and for a hand 32 weeks.
What Is the Two-Doctor Percentage Gap?
It is the difference between the loss percentage your treating physician assigns and the one the insurance carrier’s examining doctor assigns, and it is usually the single largest sum in dispute in an extremity claim.
The gap is not small. On a 312-week arm at a $600 weekly rate, every single percentage point is worth $1,872. A treating physician finding 40 percent against a carrier’s doctor finding 25 percent is a $28,080 disagreement about the same shoulder.
Why do the two doctors disagree?
Because the percentage is a judgment applied to measurements, and both the measuring and the judgment leave room. New York evaluates permanent impairment using the state’s impairment guidelines, which tie the finding to range of motion, strength, stability, and specific clinical findings. Two competent physicians can measure the same joint on two different days and record meaningfully different numbers.
There is also the matter of who is asking. Your treating provider has watched the recovery for a year. The examining doctor has one appointment, usually brief, and is retained by the party that pays the award. Those two vantage points do not tend to converge.
What happens when the opinions conflict?
The judge decides, and the decision usually follows a deposition of one or both doctors. That proceeding is where credentials get examined, including whether the examining physician actually practices in the relevant area of medicine and whether the examination supported the conclusion drawn from it. Those depositions are the practical fight that sets the payout, and they are the clearest reason to have representation by the permanency stage. Our attorneys handle this regularly when challenging the insurer’s IME doctor.
When Is an SLU Percentage Assigned?
Once you reach maximum medical improvement, meaning your condition has improved as much as it is expected to and no further change is anticipated. For cases without surgery or a fracture, the state’s impairment guidelines provide that maximum medical improvement generally cannot be determined earlier than six months from the date of injury.
Timing is strategic, not administrative. A percentage assigned before the joint has finished recovering, or before a planned surgery has happened, locks in a number that no longer describes the injury. Read more on reaching maximum medical improvement and on how the Board distinguishes permanent versus temporary disability.
What Helps Your Percentage Hold Up?
Most of what determines an SLU finding happens before anyone measures anything.
Many claimants find it helpful to keep treating consistently right up to permanency, because a gap in the record invites an argument that recovery finished earlier and better than it did. It also helps to describe function rather than pain when a doctor asks how you are doing, since the guidelines are built around what the limb can do, not how much it hurts.
Being specific matters. Saying an arm is sore is not the same as saying you can no longer reach above shoulder height or carry a full grocery bag with that hand. The second version is the kind of detail that reaches the measurement.
Schedule Loss of Use Questions Answered by Attorneys
Can I get an SLU award for my back?
No. The back is not a scheduled body part, and neither are the neck, spine, or internal organs. Permanent injuries to those areas are handled through classification, where a judge assigns a loss of wage earning capacity percentage that determines how many weeks of benefits you receive. That mechanism, and how it affects what your overall case is worth, works differently from the schedule.
Can I receive an SLU award and still keep my medical treatment?
Generally yes. An SLU award compensates permanent loss of function and does not by itself close out your right to medical care for the established injury. Medical benefits are only surrendered through a separate settlement agreement that says so.
What if I injure the same arm again years later?
A new injury to the same body part can support a new claim, but any prior schedule award for that member is credited against it. New York does not pay twice for the same percentage of the same limb, so the question becomes how much additional permanent loss the second injury caused.
Can I get an SLU award if I went back to my old job?
Yes. An SLU award compensates the permanent loss itself, not lost wages, so working full time at your previous pay does not disqualify you. This is one of the most common reasons injured workers never claim an award they were entitled to.
Who decides which body part my injury falls under?
The Board does, based on the medical evidence. A shoulder is evaluated as the arm and a hip as the leg, and where an injury involves both a scheduled member and something outside the schedule, the case can end up assessed through more than one route.
A Percentage Is an Opinion, Not a Verdict
If a report has already landed in your file with a number on it, that number is not final until a judge says it is. Percentages get argued, and they get changed.
Lewis & Lewis, P.C. has been protecting injured workers’ rights across Western New York for over 80 years, with offices in Depew, Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Batavia, Olean, and Jamestown. Our Western New York workers’ comp attorneys will read the report with you at no cost, and there is no fee unless benefits are recovered.
Call (716) 854-2100 or contact the firm online.
