Georgia House Votes to Raise Workers’ Comp Benefits, Still Lower than Other States

The Georgia House of Representatives voted this week to raise the maximum workers’ compensation benefit amounts and to increase the maximum payout to dependent spouses.

House Bill 480, sponsored by Rep. Lehman Franklin, R-Statesboro, and others, was approved by a vote of 154-15 this week. It now goes to the state Senate.

If signed into law, the measure would raise the ceiling on a number of benefits categories:

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  The temporary partial disability maximum would climb from $483 per week to $533.

• Temporary total disability maximum would be capped at $800 per week, up from $725.
• The total compensation for a surviving spouse who is the sole dependent would rise from $290,000 to $320,000. The payout would terminate upon remarriage. If the couple were not married but living together, the Board of Workers’ Compensation would have to determine if the partner was, in fact, dependent on the deceased workers’ income.

In cases in which the deceased worker has no surviving spouse or dependent child, the bill would require the claiming beneficiary to provide proof that they were truly dependent on the worker’s income. It also would require the person to have lived in Georgia for at least three months.

The increase in maximum temporary total disability benefits still leaves Georgia behind surrounding states. As of January 2022, Alabama allowed a weekly maximum of $983; Florida provided $1,099; South Carolina allowed $963; and Tennessee granted up to $1,116, according to the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute.

Topics Workers' Compensation Georgia