What benefits are provided by the Illinois Workers’ Compensation law?

If you have sustained an injury while at work, you may be protected by the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act. The Act provides injured workers three basic types of benefits.

First, the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act provides medical care benefits. Under the Act, the employer or the employer’s insurance company is required to provide an injured worker with reasonable and necessary medical care to treat the injury or ailment and requires the employer to pay for rehabilitation of an injured employee. It also requires the employer to pay for up to two different doctors of the employee’s choice, as well as the referrals from those two different doctors.

Second, the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act provides temporary disability benefits. Under the Act the employer or the employer’s insurance company is required to pay temporary disability benefits during any period of time when an employee cannot work as a result of the employee’s injury. Those benefits usually consist of weekly payments equal to 2/3 of the average weekly wage the injured employee was making at the time of his injury and must continue until the employee is released to work.

Third, the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act provides for an award for any compensable permanent disability or injury sustained by the employee while on the job. In most cases, when an employee reaches maximum medical improvement and is able to return to his former employment, the benefit consists of an award for permanent partial disability. If an injured employee is not able to return to their former employment but, rather, can only return to a lesser paying job, the employee may be entitled to receive a portion of the difference between their current earnings and their previous earnings. When an injured employee sustains more serious injuries or is not able to return to work, he may be entitled to receive permanent total disability awards which consist of weekly payments for the rest of the employee’s life.

The Workers’ Compensation Act also provides a variety of other benefits for employees or the surviving family members. The Act is complicated and if you have questions about your rights under the Act, you should confer with an attorney. It is important to realize, however, that whenever you are injured at work you may be entitled to each of these three different types of benefits.