In Nevada, your temporary disability benefits are 66 and 2/3% of your average monthly wage, based on your 12-week wage history prior to your injury. Temporary disability maxes out at $4,873.20, and it is usually tax-free.
If you are injured on the job, you are entitled to temporary disability benefits for time missed from work while recovering from an occupational injury. Temporary disability requires a doctor to certify that you have work restrictions or cannot work for a certain period.
To qualify for temporary disability, you must be off work for five days within a twenty-day period. Temporary disability ends when:
- a doctor determines you are able to work
- your condition is stable
- you are offered light duty or modified work
You can receive limited temporary disability when attending medical appointments.
Temporary partial disability is paid when you cannot work full time. It is the difference between the temporary disability rate and what you are earning working part-time.
If you are let go for misconduct, you cannot receive temporary disability.
In this article our Las Vegas Nevada workers’ comp attorneys will explain:
- 1. Nevada Temporary disability benefits
- 2. How to qualify for temporary disability
- 3. Temporary total disability calculation
- 4. Employer response to TTD certification
- 5. Ending of temporary total disability
- 6. Temporary total disability and medical treatment
- 7. Temporary total disability and vocational rehabilitation
- 8. Work and temporary total disability
- 9. Temporary partial disability
- 10. No temporary disability if let go for misconduct
- 11. Temporary disability during injury recovery period
You are entitled to temporary disability benefits for time missed from work while recovering from an injury.
1. Nevada temporary disability benefits
Temporary disability pays you for time lost from work due to an injury. It is based on a percentage of your salary. It is meant to be temporary, available while you recover from the injury.
You must file a claim for workers’ compensation benefits to obtain temporary disability.
Temporary disability is one of a group of benefits available to injured workers. Other benefits include:
Temporary disability and permanent partial disability cannot be paid at the same time.1
2. How to qualify for temporary disability
You obtain temporary total disability based on a doctor’s certification. The certification must include:
- the period of disability
- a description of your physical limitations and restrictions
- if the restrictions are permanent or temporary
- the signature of the doctor or chiropractor2
All injured employees can qualify for temporary disability, including police officers and firefighters.
Example: Ian is a hotel assistant manager and is injured at work. His doctor signs a form saying that Ian cannot work for the next three weeks because he is restricted from repetitive standing and sitting.
2.1. Minimum temporary disability period
Temporary disability is only paid if you are prevented from earning full wages due to an injury for:
- five consecutive days, or
- five days within a twenty-day period.3 4
Example: Sofia misses three days of work due to a work injury. She then works for the next three weeks.
She is not entitled to temporary disability because she did not miss five days within a twenty-day period.
3. Temporary total disability calculation
Temporary total disability is paid at a rate of 2/3 of your average monthly wage.5 The first payment is made within 14 days of being certified for disability.6
It is not paid while you are incarcerated.7 If you are temporarily disabled, you cannot simultaneously:
- be unemployed, and
- receive unemployment benefits.8
3.1. Wage information
With the initial payment of temporary disability, the employer should provide an Explanation of Wage Calculation to you.9 An insurance adjuster will calculate the average monthly wage using a Wage Calculation form.
The insurance company will obtain wage information from the employer on the Employer’s Wage Verification Form.
You can dispute the wage calculation with documentation such as a:
- W-2,
- check stub, or
- income tax return.
The form notes that the average is calculated based on a twelve-week period prior to the injury. The limit is 150% of the state’s average monthly wage.
For 2022, Nevada’s average monthly wage limit is $7,309.80, which makes the maximum temporary total disability rate $4,873.20 per month.10
An employer can offer you modified or light duty work within the restrictions given by a doctor to avoid payment of temporary disability.
The employer can also request that you fill out a form requesting further temporary total disability.
4. Employer response to temporary disability certification
An employer can offer you modified or light duty work within the restrictions given by a doctor to avoid payment of temporary disability.
The position must:
- be in a similar location
- have similar hours
- have a similar wage11
- have similar benefits12
Example: Melanie is injured at work. Her doctor says she cannot lift more than 5 pounds.
Her employer offers her work within the restrictions. It is in the same location, with the same hours, and at the same pay as her regular job.
Since the employer offered Melanie modified work duties, she is not eligible to receive temporary disability benefits.
5. Ending of temporary total disability
Nevada temporary total disability will end when:
- a doctor or chiropractor decides you are able to work
- the employer offers light or modified duty within the restrictions of the doctor or chiropractor
- your condition has stabilized
- you are incarcerated
- when you are considered eligible for vocational rehabilitation benefits13
Example: Lucas has been receiving temporary disability for six weeks. His doctor has decided that Lucas condition has stabilized.
Lucas’ temporary disability payments stop at the time his injury is determined to be stable.
6. Temporary total disability and medical treatment
If you are off work on temporary total disability and then return to work, you may be entitled to further temporary disability payments for medical treatment if the:
- treatment is located more than 50 miles from the place of employment.14
You are entitled to a minimum of:
- four hours of temporary partial disability if you miss up to a half-day for a medical appointment, and
- eight hours of disability pay for missing a full day for a medical appointment.15
The employer cannot require you to use sick or personal leave for this medical treatment.16
7. Temporary total disability and vocational rehabilitation
If the temporary total disability is paid for more than 90 days, you or your Nevada employer can request a vocational rehabilitation counselor to prepare a report on your ability to:
- return to the same job
- return to other employment17
8. Work and temporary total disability
If you are receiving temporary total disability, you cannot work at another job at the same time.
Any employer that knowingly offers employment or continues to employ a worker who is receiving temporary total disability from another employer is guilty of a misdemeanor.18
9. Temporary partial disability
Temporary partial disability is paid for up to twenty-four months.19
The amount of temporary disability is paid at the difference between:
- the amount earned after the injury, and
- the temporary total disability rate.20
It is calculated using Form D46.21
Example: Maggie injures her wrist at work. Her doctor puts her on light duty and said she can only work sixteen hours a week instead of forty. Maggie earns $10 an hour.
Maggie is entitled to temporary partial disability of $107 a week. It is the temporary total disability rate of $267 ($400 a week * 2/3) less $160 (16 * $10).22
10. No temporary disability if let go for misconduct
An employer will not have to pay temporary total disability if you:
- are discharged only for the misconduct and not for anything to do with the work injury, and
- being discharged is the only reason you cannot return to work23
An insurance company must decide whether to pay temporary disability within 70 days of learning you have been let go for misconduct.24
Example: Josh is Nevada police officer with a workers’ compensation case. He is put on temporary total disability by his doctor. Josh is then fired for stealing from the company.
Although Josh was discharged only for stealing, the reason he can’t work is due to his injury. He is entitled to temporary total disability because he also can’t return to work due to his injury.
11. Temporary disability during injury recovery period
Temporary disability benefits are available to you during the time you are recovering from a work injury.
The recovery period will very likely include medical treatment. At the end of the medical treatment, temporary disability benefits will stop, and you will be able to return to work or be in a permanent condition to obtain new employment.
Call us for help…
If you or someone you care about was injured at work in Nevada, our injury lawyers can help you file a workers’ compensation claim, reopen a worker’s compensation claim or appeal a denial of workers’ compensation coverage.
Also see our related article, Is carpal tunnel covered by workers’ compensation in Nevada?
(For cases in California, please visit our page on temporary disability in California workers’ compensation cases.)
For a consultation to discuss your case simply fill out the form below or call us.
Legal References:
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 616C.405
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 616C.475(7)
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 616C.400
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 617.420
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 616C.475(1)
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 616C.475(3)
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 616C.475(2)
- Nev. Rev. Sat. § 612.185(3)(b)
- Nev. Admin Code § 616C.520
- Average Monthly Wage, 2023 – Nevada Division of Industrial Relations.
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 616C.475(8)
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 616C.475(8)
- Nev. Admin. Code § 616C.577
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 616C.477
- Nev. Admin. Code § 616C.522
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 616C.477(3)
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 616C.550
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 616D.320
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 616C.500(2)
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 616C.500(1)
- Nev. Admin. Code § 616C.598
- See Amazon.com v. Magee (2005) 121 Nev. 632, 119 P.3d 732.
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 616C.232(1)
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 616C.232(2)