Once your claim is accepted, your employer is required to pay your wages on the normal pay day and in the normal pay manner. Penalties apply for employers who do not make weekly payments on the regular pay day.

• Calculating weekly workers’ compensation payments
• Limits to payments
• When weekly payments stop

Calculating weekly workers’ compensation payments

There are two methods of calculating weekly workers' compensation payments, depending on whether or not you work under an award agreement.

Workers under an industrial award (including enterprise orders, collective agreements and enterprise bargaining agreements)
For the first 13 weeks: you will receive the rate of weekly workers’ compensation payments payable under your industrial award you will receive any over-award or service payment paid to you on a regular basis you will receive the overtime, bonuses and allowances paid to you over the 13 weeks prior to your injury, averaged out over each weekly payment	From week 14 onwards: you will receive the rate of weekly workers’ compensation payments payable under your industrial award you will receive any over-award or service payment paid to you on a regular basis you will receive any other allowance prescribed by the regulations you will not receive any other allowances, overtime or bonuses
Workers not under an industrial award
For the first 13 weeks you will receive an average of the payments (including overtime, bonuses or allowances) paid to you over the 12 months prior to your injury, and in the employment in which you were injured. If you have been employed for less than a year, your earnings will be averaged over the lesser period.	From week 14 onwards, your weekly payments will ‘step down’ to consist of 85% of your average weekly earnings.
For more information, contact Advisory Services.

Limits to payments

There is a limit on the amount of weekly payments you can receive when you are on workers’ compensation. The maximum amount is set at twice the ‘average weekly earnings’ as calculated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and this amount is reviewed each year.

A limit also applies to amount of compensation you can receive in total. The maximum amount of compensation you can receive during the life of your claim, in terms of weekly payments for loss of earnings, is called the Prescribed Amount. An extension to this limit may be available to some workers who have a permanent total incapacity for work.

When weekly payments stop

Your weekly payments may cease if: