Key Takeaways
- Light duty pay comes with a top-up. Section 8(a) of the Workers’ Compensation Act entitles a worker who earns less on a modified job to temporary partial disability, worth two-thirds of the gap between full-duty earnings and the modified wage.
- Two benefits cover two different situations. Temporary total disability pays 66 2/3% of the average weekly wage while a worker is off entirely, and temporary partial disability takes over once light duty starts.
- Restrictions come from the treating doctor. Section 8(a) lets an injured worker choose their own physician at the employer’s expense, and those written restrictions are what any light duty offer has to match.
- Two deadlines control everything. Notice to the employer is due within 45 days under Section 6(c), and the application must reach the Commission within 3 years of the accident or 2 years of the last compensation payment, whichever is later.
- A light duty offer is not automatically valid. An offer that ignores the written restrictions is a different thing from one that respects them, and that difference is worth checking before anyone signs it or turns it down.
Being told to come back on “light duty” is one of the most confusing moments in an Illinois work injury claim. The check that arrives is smaller than a normal paycheck but larger than nothing, the job looks nothing like the one that caused the injury, and nobody explains where the number came from or whether saying no is allowed.
There is a specific answer in the statute. Illinois law has a benefit built for exactly this situation, called temporary partial disability, and it is designed so that going back to a lower-paying modified job does not cost the injured worker the difference. This guide explains what light duty means under the Act, how the payment is calculated, and what happens if there is no modified work to be had.
The Short Answer
Light duty is modified work that fits the physical restrictions your doctor has written down. If you take it and earn less than you were earning before the injury, the insurer owes you temporary partial disability on top of your wages. That benefit equals two-thirds of the difference between what you would be earning doing your regular job and what you actually earn in the modified job. If no modified work exists within your restrictions, you stay on temporary total disability instead.
What Light Duty Means Under the Act
The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act does not use the phrase “light duty” as a defined term with a checklist. What it does is describe the situation and attach a benefit to it. Section 8(a) addresses the case where an employee “is working light duty on a part-time basis or full-time basis and earns less than he or she would be earning if employed in the full capacity of the job or jobs.”
Two things follow from that wording. The first is that light duty covers both reduced hours and reduced pay rate. A worker sent back for twenty hours a week at the same hourly rate is in the same statutory position as one working full time at a lower rate. The second is that the comparison is to the job you held when you were hurt, not to whatever the modified role would normally pay someone else.
In practice a modified job is built from the restrictions on your doctor’s note: no lifting over fifteen pounds, no overhead reaching, no ladders, sitting only. Whether a particular assignment is genuinely within those limits is the question that causes most of the disputes, and it is a question of fact rather than opinion.
How Temporary Partial Disability Is Calculated
Section 8(a) sets out the formula directly. Temporary partial disability benefits “shall be equal to two-thirds of the difference between the average amount that the employee would be able to earn in the full performance of his or her duties in the occupation in which he or she was engaged at the time of accident and the gross amount which he or she is earning in the modified job.”
A worked example makes the arithmetic concrete. Say your average weekly wage before the injury was $1,200, and the modified job the employer offers pays $700 gross per week. The gap is $500. Two-thirds of $500 is $333.33, which is the weekly temporary partial disability benefit. Added to the $700 in wages, the week comes to $1,033.33.
Compare that to staying home. Temporary total disability under Section 8(b) is 66 2/3% of the average weekly wage, which on a $1,200 wage is $800. The worker who takes suitable light duty and receives the top-up ends up better off than the worker who does not, which is the incentive the statute is built around. Note that the calculation uses gross pay in the modified job, so overtime or a shift differential in the new role reduces the benefit.
| Situation | Benefit | What it pays | Statute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Off work completely while recovering | Temporary total disability (TTD) | 66 2/3% of the average weekly wage | 820 ILCS 305/8(b) |
| Back at work on modified duty, earning less than before | Temporary partial disability (TPD) | Two-thirds of the difference between full-duty earnings and modified gross pay | 820 ILCS 305/8(a) |
| In an approved vocational rehabilitation program | Maintenance | Not less than the temporary total disability rate | 820 ILCS 305/8(a) |
| Back at work with no loss of earnings | None of the above | Wages only, though medical treatment stays covered | 820 ILCS 305/8(a) |
The Current Illinois Benefit Rates
Temporary benefits are capped, and the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission republishes the ceilings twice a year, on January 15 and July 15. The figures below are the ones in force now. Because they change every six months, a rate quoted in an older article is very often stale.
| Figure | Amount per week |
|---|---|
| Statewide average weekly wage (SAWW) | $1,534.22 |
| Maximum temporary total disability rate | $2,045.63 |
| Minimum permanent total disability and death rate | $767.11 |
| Maximum permanent partial disability rate (1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026) | $1,084.66 |
If you want to see how the temporary numbers eventually feed into a final settlement figure, our Illinois workers’ comp settlement chart walks through the scheduled weeks for each body part.
Who Decides Your Restrictions
Restrictions come from a doctor, and Section 8(a) is explicit that the choice of doctor belongs to the injured worker: an employee “may at any time elect to secure his own physician, surgeon and hospital services at the employer’s expense.” The Act contemplates two choices of physician at the employer’s expense, along with anyone in the chain of referrals from them.
This matters for light duty because the restrictions written by your treating doctor are the yardstick against which any modified job offer is measured. An employer or insurer may also send you to an independent medical examination, and that examiner may return a different and usually less restrictive opinion. Those two opinions can conflict, which is worth understanding in advance; we cover the process in detail in our guide to the Illinois workers’ comp independent medical examination.
Temporary benefits are not open-ended. They run while you are still recovering, and they end when you reach maximum medical improvement, the point at which further treatment is not expected to improve the condition. What follows MMI is a different category of benefit altogether.
What Happens If You Refuse Light Duty
Nobody can physically compel you to work. The real question is what refusing does to the benefit payments, and the honest answer is that it puts them at risk. Temporary disability benefits exist to replace earnings lost because of the injury. Where an employer offers work that genuinely sits inside the written restrictions and the worker declines it, the insurer will typically take the position that the lost earnings are no longer attributable to the injury, and will move to suspend payments.
That is why the validity of the offer matters so much. Before refusing, it is worth getting three things in writing: the specific duties of the modified job, the hours and the rate of pay, and your doctor’s view on whether those duties fit the restrictions. A job described as “sitting at a desk” that turns out to involve carrying boxes is not the job that was offered. If the assignment falls outside your restrictions, saying so in writing and asking your treating physician to confirm it puts you in a very different position from a flat refusal.
Disputes of this kind are resolved by the Commission rather than by the employer, and the burden of showing that suitable work was actually available and actually refused does not fall on the injured worker alone.
What If There Is No Light Duty Work
Employers are not obliged to invent a job. Many workplaces, particularly smaller ones and physically demanding trades, simply have nothing that fits a serious restriction. When your doctor releases you to modified duty and no such work exists, you have not been released to full duty and you are not refusing anything. Temporary total disability continues, because you remain unable to earn in your occupation.
This situation is common on building sites, where nearly every task carries a lifting or climbing component; our Illinois construction accident page covers the injuries that most often lead to it. If the injury turns out to prevent a return to your trade at all, the Act provides for vocational rehabilitation, during which the maintenance benefit applies and, by the terms of Section 8(a), “shall not be less than the temporary total disability rate determined for the employee.”
Your Job Is Protected While You Claim
A widespread fear is that asking about any of this invites retaliation. The Act addresses it head on. Section 4(h) makes it “unlawful for any employer, individually or through any insurance company or service or adjustment company, to discharge or to threaten to discharge, or to refuse to rehire or recall to active service in a suitable capacity an employee because of the exercise of his or her rights or remedies granted to him or her by this Act.”
That protection covers asking for the benefit you are owed on light duty, not only filing a formal claim. We have written separately on whether you can lose your job for bringing a workers’ comp claim in Illinois.
The Deadlines That Apply
Two dates govern every Illinois work injury claim, and both are short enough to catch people out.
Notice: 45 days. Section 6(c) requires that notice of the accident be given to the employer “as soon as practicable, but not later than 45 days after the accident.” The Act adds that notice “shall give the approximate date and place of the accident, if known, and may be given orally or in writing.” Oral notice counts, though written notice is far easier to prove later.
Filing: 3 years, or 2 from the last payment. Under Section 6(d), unless the application for compensation is filed with the Commission “within 3 years after the date of the accident, where no compensation has been paid, or within 2 years after the date of the last payment of compensation, where any has been paid, whichever shall be later, the right to file such application shall be barred.”
The second half of that rule is the one that surprises people on light duty. If temporary partial disability payments have been running, the clock is measured from the last payment, not from the date of the accident, and it can therefore extend well beyond three years.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can my employer force me to work light duty in Illinois?
No one can force you to work, but declining modified work that genuinely fits your written restrictions usually gives the insurer grounds to suspend your temporary disability payments. The practical question is not whether you can be forced, but whether the offered job actually matches the restrictions your doctor wrote.
Do I get paid less on light duty?
Your wages may be lower, but the benefit is designed to close most of the gap. Under 820 ILCS 305/8(a) you are entitled to temporary partial disability equal to two-thirds of the difference between what you would earn on full duty and your gross pay in the modified job.
What is temporary partial disability in Illinois?
Temporary partial disability, or TPD, is the benefit paid when you are working a modified job and earning less than you did before the injury. It equals two-thirds of the difference between full-duty earnings and modified gross pay, and it is paid on top of the wages you earn.
What if my employer has no light duty work available?
Your employer is not required to create a job for you. If no work exists within your restrictions, you remain unable to earn in your occupation and temporary total disability continues at 66 2/3% of your average weekly wage.
Can I be fired for refusing light duty?
Section 4(h) of the Act makes it unlawful for an employer to discharge, threaten to discharge, or refuse to rehire an employee for exercising rights under the Act. Whether a particular dismissal crosses that line depends on the facts, including whether the modified work offered was genuinely within your restrictions.
Who decides what my work restrictions are?
Your treating doctor writes the restrictions, and Section 8(a) gives you the right to choose that physician at your employer’s expense. An insurer may obtain a second opinion through an independent medical examination, and where the two disagree the Commission resolves it.
How long does light duty last?
Temporary benefits run while you are still recovering and end when you reach maximum medical improvement. There is no fixed number of weeks; the medical evidence sets the endpoint.
Does light duty pay count against my settlement?
Temporary partial disability replaces lost earnings during recovery and is a separate category from permanent partial disability, which compensates lasting impairment after maximum medical improvement. Receiving TPD does not remove a permanency claim.
The moment a light duty offer arrives is the moment the numbers change, and it is much easier to sort out at that point than months later. If you are looking at a modified job offer, a suspended benefit check or a restriction your employer appears to be ignoring, our Chicago workers’ compensation lawyers can look at the paperwork with you. If you are still at work and trying to avoid the next injury, our ergonomic tips for avoiding workplace injuries are a sensible place to start.
When Light Duty Changes Your Check
If light duty cut your check, we will compare it to your doctor’s written restrictions and check whether the insurer pays the full two-thirds top-up.
No fee unless we win.
Sources
- Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act, 820 ILCS 305, official text published by the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission: Section 8(a) temporary partial disability and maintenance, Section 8(b) temporary total disability rate, Section 6(c) notice, Section 6(d) filing periods, Section 4(h) retaliation. iwcc.illinois.gov
- Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission, published benefit rate tables (statewide average weekly wage, temporary total disability maximum, permanent total disability and death minimum, permanent partial disability maximum), rates in force 15 July 2026 to 14 January 2027. iwcc.illinois.gov benefit rates
This article is general information about Illinois law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Benefit rates change every six months and the result in any individual claim depends on its own facts. Please speak with a lawyer about your own situation.
