Iowa Workers' Comp Settlement Calculator
Estimate a workers' comp settlement under Iowa law. The calculator applies this jurisdiction's own benefit rate and weekly maximum, and every figure below is the one our verified data holds, with the statute behind it and the date we checked it.
What Iowa pays, and when you must act
Workers' compensation pays a share of your wage while you cannot work, whoever was at fault, up to a weekly maximum the state sets. Two deadlines run from the injury: one for reporting it and one for filing the claim. Here is what we hold for this state.
The calculator takes a gross wage, so for this state it applies the rate to a figure larger than the one the statute uses, and says so beside the estimate. The real weekly benefit is lower than the one shown.
Iowa Code § 85.37·Last reviewed 2026-07-28
Iowa pays 80% of spendable (after-tax) earnings, not 80% of gross. Iowa caps permanent partial disability separately and lower than the temporary total, healing period, permanent total and death classes, which share the headline figure. Both maximums are effective July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027.
Iowa Code §§ 85.34, 85.37·Last reviewed 2026-07-28
Iowa Code § 85.23·Last reviewed 2026-08-09
“1. The parties to a contested case or persons who are involved in a dispute which could culminate in a contested case may enter into a settlement of any claim arising under chapter 10A, subchapter III, this chapter, or chapter 85A or 85B, providing for disposition of the claim. The settlement shall be in writing on forms prescribed by the workers' compensation commissioner and submitted to the workers' compensation commissioner for approval.”
Iowa Code § 85.35(1)·Last reviewed 2026-10-07
What Iowa pays at different wages
The weekly benefit the calculator above pays at six average weekly wages, and what that comes to over 12 weeks out of work. The numbers are the engine's output, not an editorial claim about what these claims are worth.
Temporary total disability only, run through the calculator above at each wage: no medical costs, no permanent impairment, no waiting period or limit on the number of weeks, and one rate for every week, so a different rate the state sets for part of a claim (see the note under the maximum) is not applied. Below a wage of about $3,039 a week the benefit is 80% of the wage; above it, Iowa's maximum of $2,431 sets the benefit instead. Iowa applies its rate to after-tax earnings and these wages are gross, so the figures overstate the benefit. These wages illustrate the rule; they are not an estimate of your claim.
Every Iowa deadline we hold
A claim can be more than one kind of case, and the clock is different for each. These are the Iowa periods in our verified data, with the statute behind each one. A deadline is the outside limit, never a target, and other rules can shorten it.
Iowa Code § 614.1(2)·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the personal injury calculatorIowa Code § 614.1(9)·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the medical malpractice calculatorIowa Code § 614.1(2)·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the wrongful death calculatorIowa Code § 85.26·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the workers compensation calculatorIowa Code § 614.1(2)·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the slip and fall calculatorIowa against the rest of the country
Every count below is read from our state-law data across all 51 jurisdictions, so it moves when the data does. What you will not find here is an average settlement figure: the only one we could compute is a model, and a model presented as a measurement is not a fact.
- Iowa pays 80% of the wage, as 3 of the 51 jurisdictions we track do. The most common rate is 66.67%, paid in 39. It applies the rate to after-tax earnings, as 4 of the 51 do; the rest apply it to gross wages.
- Of the 34 jurisdictions with a verified maximum weekly benefit in our data, Iowa's $2,431 is the 1st highest, and they run from $800 in Georgia to $2,431 in Iowa. Each state resets its maximum on its own date, so these are the figures our data holds rather than one day's.
- Iowa's 2 years to file is the same as the most common deadline in the country, which 24 jurisdictions use. Across the 51 jurisdictions the deadline for this case type runs from 1 year to 4 years.
- In 44 of the 51 jurisdictions, the statute we read provides for settling or commuting a claim to a lump sum on the terms it states; in 4 it allows one only in the cases it names; and for 3 we could not read an official copy. Iowa is in the first group.
Comparisons are drawn from the rules that set a benefit, not from closed-claim data, which we do not hold. See the full methodology
Iowa calculators
Iowa Workers' Comp questions
Every document behind our workers' compensation figures, each linked with the date we last read it, is listed on our Workers' Compensation research sources page.