Texas Workers' Comp TIBs 2026–2027: How Much and When Checks Start

Texas does things differently from almost every other state. Most private employers can choose not to carry workers' comp at all, the wage benefit has its own name, and its percentage is 70% rather than the two-thirds used elsewhere. If you were hurt at work in Texas and your employer is covered, the payment you receive while you can't earn your usual wage is called temporary income benefits, or TIBs. Here is how they are calculated for injuries in the current fiscal year.

First, check that your employer has coverage

Texas does not require most private employers to buy workers' compensation insurance. Employers that opt out are called non-subscribers. If yours is one, there are no TIBs; your options run through a personal injury lawsuit or an employer benefit plan instead. The Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers' Compensation (DWC), keeps an online coverage lookup, and your employer is required to tell you whether it has coverage.

How Texas TIBs are calculated

TIBs pay 70% of the difference between your average weekly wage (AWW) and what you earn after the injury. If you can't work at all, the difference is your whole AWW, so TIBs are 70% of it.

There is one exception in your favor. If you earned less than $8.50 an hour, TIBs pay 75% for the first 26 weeks, then drop to 70%.

Your AWW is usually the average of your wages in the 13 weeks immediately before the injury. It includes the cash value of things like employer-provided housing or meals if they are part of your pay.

The 2027 maximum and minimum

Texas resets its caps every October 1, at the start of the state fiscal year. The cap is 100% of the state average weekly wage, rounded to the dollar, and the minimum is 15% of it.

Injury dates	Max TIBs per week	Min TIBs per week
Oct 1, 2026 – Sep 30, 2027	$1,314	$197
Oct 1, 2025 – Sep 30, 2026	$1,271	$191
Oct 1, 2024 – Sep 30, 2025	$1,219	$183

The year that matters is the one in which you were injured. Someone hurt on September 15, 2026 is paid on the $1,271 table even if their checks run well into 2027.

Examples for injuries after October 1, 2026

AWW	Situation	Weekly TIBs
$1,000	Off work entirely	$700
$1,000	Back at work earning $400	$420
$2,200	Off work entirely	$1,314 (maximum)

In the second row, 70% of the $600 difference is $420. Added to the $400 wage, this worker brings in $820 a week while recovering.

The first-week rule

TIBs do not accrue for the first seven days of disability. If the disability lasts two weeks or longer, the first week is paid back.

That threshold is "two weeks or longer," so a 14-day disability is enough. A worker with a $1,000 AWW who is out for 10 days gets three days of TIBs, about $300. The same worker out for 21 days is paid for all 21, about $2,100.

When TIBs stop

TIBs end at the earliest of:

• Maximum medical improvement (MMI), when a doctor certifies that further material recovery is not expected;
• the point when you can again earn your pre-injury wage; or
• 104 weeks after income benefits begin to accrue.

After MMI, a doctor assigns an impairment rating. If you have one, you receive impairment income benefits (IIBs): three weeks for each percentage point, at 70% of your AWW, capped at $920 a week for injuries in fiscal year 2027. Workers with serious impairments may later qualify for supplemental income benefits. Those benefits are outside the scope of this calculator.

Deadlines Texas workers ask about most

1. Report the injury to your employer within 30 days. Missing this can cost you benefits. For an occupational illness, the 30 days run from when you knew or should have known it was work-related.
2. File a claim with the DWC within one year, using DWC Form-041. Reporting to your employer does not file the claim for you.
3. Keep medical records and pay stubs from the 13 weeks before the injury. Disputes about TIBs often start with the AWW, and the paperwork is how you challenge it.

What to do in the first two weeks after a Texas work injury

The first days after an injury decide how smoothly the rest of the claim goes. Most delays and disputes trace back to something that was missed early, so it helps to work through a short list.

1. Get medical care and say it happened at work. Tell the clinic or emergency room that the injury is work-related, so the records and the bill go to workers' comp rather than your health insurance.
2. Report the injury to your employer. Texas gives you 30 days. Report it in writing, even if you also told a supervisor in person, and keep a copy or a photo of what you sent.
3. File the claim. Send DWC Form-041 to the Division within one year. Your employer's report to its insurer is not the same as your claim.
4. Ask for the work status note. After each visit, ask the doctor for written work restrictions or an off-work note, and give a copy to your employer. Benefits follow those notes.
5. Save your pay records. Gather pay stubs for the period your state uses to set the average weekly wage. You'll need them to check the first payment.
6. Write things down. Keep a simple log of calls with the adjuster, dates of appointments and days missed. It takes minutes and settles most later arguments.
7. Confirm your employer's coverage. If your employer is a non-subscriber, none of the TIBs rules apply, and you should talk to a lawyer about other remedies quickly.

Why your TIBs might be lower than expected

• The AWW left something out. Overtime, regular bonuses and in-kind pay belong in the 13-week average.
• A doctor released you to light duty. If your employer makes a bona fide offer of a job within your restrictions, the offered wage generally counts as your post-injury earnings, even if you turn the job down, and TIBs fall to 70% of the remaining gap.
• The wrong fiscal year's cap was used. Check the cap for your injury date in the table above.

If your Texas check is late or looks wrong

Start with the numbers. Divide your weekly check by your average weekly wage and compare the result with the formula above. If it is lower than it should be, the usual causes are an average weekly wage that left out overtime or part of the look-back period, the wrong year's rate table, or days counted under the waiting period that should have been paid back.

Then ask the insurer, in writing, for the wage statement and the calculation it used. Most errors are corrected at this stage once you send pay stubs that show the difference. If payments have stopped without a written explanation, or the insurer won't correct a clear mistake, contact the DWC's customer assistance line or the Office of Injured Employee Counsel, a state agency that helps injured workers in Texas for free. State agencies run ombudsman or customer-assistance programs for injured workers, and a workers' compensation attorney can review the claim; in most states their fees are limited by law and come out of the benefits recovered rather than being billed up front.

Are Texas workers' comp benefits taxable?

No. Federal law excludes workers' compensation from income tax, and Texas has no state income tax.

Run your own numbers

The Texas workers' comp calculator applies the fiscal-year caps, the 70% and 75% rules, the first-week rule and the 104-week limit, and shows the Labor Code section behind each step.

Sources

• Texas Department of Insurance, maximum and minimum weekly benefits
• Flahive, Ogden & Latson, DWC increases state average weekly wage and benefit rates (FY2027)
• Texas Labor Code §§408.061, 408.062, 408.082, 408.101–408.103
• Nolo, How to file a workers' compensation claim in Texas