Lost Wages Calculator
An injury can cost pay in more ways than the days you were off work: the overtime you would have worked, the bonus you lost, the paid leave you used up, and the weeks back at work on lighter duty or fewer hours. This calculator adds up each of them from your own figures, so you can see what the injury has cost you so far and put a number on that part of a lost wages claim.
It does the arithmetic and nothing else. What a claim can recover for lost pay is set by each state's law and the facts of the case, and the figure here is a starting point to check against your records, not a finding.
Add up the pay your injury cost you
Enter what you were paid before the injury and the time you missed. The calculator adds up the pay lost, line by line, from your own figures.
Your pay before tax, from a pay stub or your tax return. For self-employment, use your earnings after business expenses.
Workdays missed beyond the full weeks, such as days off for appointments.
For light duty or fewer hours after you went back: what you earned each of those weeks.
Overtime you would have worked, a bonus you lost, or paid leave you used because of the injury, in dollars.
Pay lost to the injury
Enter your pay to see the figure.
This adds up the figures you enter. It does not decide what a claim can recover, which each state's law and the facts decide; it does not subtract tax or any benefit you were paid; and it does not count the earnings you may lose in the future.
How the lost wages calculator works
It turns your pay into a weekly figure first. Hourly pay is the rate times the hours in a usual week; monthly pay is the month times twelve, divided by the weeks in a year; yearly pay is the year divided by the weeks in a year.
Then it adds four parts. The full weeks you missed, at the weekly figure. The extra workdays you missed, at the weekly figure divided by the workdays in your usual week. The weeks you were back at work but earning less, at the difference between the weekly figure and what you earned. And any other pay you lost, which you enter as a dollar amount.
Each part is rounded to the cent, and the total is the sum of the parts as they are shown, so the lines add up to the total on the screen.
What goes into a lost wages claim
A lost wages claim is the part of an injury claim for the pay you lost because of the injury. It is built from records: what you earned before, how much work you missed, and what you earned after you went back.
Pay you lost includes more than your base wage. Overtime you had been working and would have kept working, shift differentials, commissions, tips, a bonus you lost because of the time off, and the paid leave or sick days you used because of the injury can each be part of it. Enter those in the other pay field, with the records that show them.
Time missed includes more than the days you could not work at all: the days off for treatment, therapy and medical appointments count too, and so do the weeks on reduced hours or lighter duty, at the pay you lost in them.
What a claim can recover for each of these, and whether a benefit you were paid while you were off reduces it, is set by each state's law, which this page does not apply.
How to prove lost wages
Pay stubs from before and after the injury show the rate and the hours. A letter from your employer, on its letterhead, saying your job, your rate, your usual hours, and the dates you missed, is a record to ask for early.
Tax returns and W-2 forms show what you earned over a year, which matters when your pay varied from week to week. For self-employment, the returns, the invoices and the bank records show what you earned before and what you lost after.
A note from your doctor saying when you could not work, and when you could go back and on what terms, ties the time missed to the injury. Keep a calendar of every day missed and every appointment.
Lost wages when you are self-employed
For self-employment, enter your earnings after business expenses, on whatever basis fits: a yearly figure from your last tax return is the plainest. If your earnings rose or fell before the injury, the calculator uses the figure you choose, so choose the one your records support.
Work you turned down, a contract you could not take, or a client you lost because of the injury can be part of the claim. Enter what you can show in the other pay field, and keep the emails, invoices and messages that show it.
Future lost earnings are a different question
The calculator counts pay already lost. If the injury will keep you from working, or from earning what you did, the earnings you will lose in the future are a separate part of a claim, measured over years, and a vocational or financial expert can be asked to put a figure on them. The calculator does not count them.
If your injury is still keeping you off work, update the figures as time passes: the weeks missed keep growing until you are back at your old pay.
Are lost wages in a settlement taxed?
For a personal injury, the federal tax code leaves out of income “(2) the amount of any damages (other than punitive damages) received (whether by suit or agreement and whether as lump sums or as periodic payments) on account of personal physical injuries or physical sickness;” (26 U.S.C. § 104(a)(2)) The IRS states the rule this way: “If you receive a settlement for personal physical injuries or physical sickness and did not take an itemized deduction for medical expenses related to the injury or sickness in prior years, the full amount is non-taxable.” (IRS Publication 4345 (Rev. 9-2023))
Lost wages in an employment claim are different: “If you receive a settlement in an employment-related lawsuit; for example, for unlawful discrimination or involuntary termination, the portion of the proceeds that is for lost wages (i.e., severance pay, back pay, front pay) is taxable wages and subject to the social security wage base and social security and Medicare tax rates in effect in the year paid.” (IRS Publication 4345 (Rev. 9-2023))
And the IRS adds: “Whether you must include the settlement proceeds in your income depends on all the facts and circumstances in your case.” (IRS Publication 4345 (Rev. 9-2023)) The settlement tax calculator on this site sorts a settlement into the parts these rules reach.
What to keep for a lost wages claim
Keep every pay stub from the months before the injury and every one since. Ask your employer for a letter stating your job, rate, usual hours and the dates you missed, and for a record of the paid leave and sick days you used.
Keep your tax returns and W-2 forms from the years before the injury, and every note from a doctor about when you could not work and when you could return.
Write down every day you missed and why, and every appointment, with its date and length, as it happens rather than from memory later.