Work Comp Advisory Council Bill Passed!

In another win for injured workers and the worker’s compensation system as a whole, on Monday morning, March 30, 2026, Governor Tony Evers signed new worker’s compensation legislation for Wisconsin.

The new law (2025 Wisconsin Act 145) arose from the Wisconsin’s Worker’s Compensation Advisory Council, which is the group of labor and management members (and insurance industry advisors) that gather, discuss, and collectively agree to reasoned, vetted, and incremental changes to the worker’s compensation system.  The Council traditionally then produces an Agreed-Upon bill that the legislature receives for approval. The Advisory Council process has made Wisconsin a nationwide gold standard–producing a stable work comp system in our state, with significant benefits for injured workers along with ever-declining premiums for Wisconsin’s employers.

The Council bill was approved by the legislature in the most recent session, and Governor Evers signed the bill into law. The law is effective April 1, 2026. The Governor’s press release can be found here. 

New Law Increases Benefits for Injured Workers

The new law provides a number of economic benefits for injured workers, including:

1. Increased Permanent Partial Disability (PPD) Benefits for injured workers. Specifically:

• • The PPD rate for work injuries on/after April 1, 2026, has been increased to $454/week (increased from $446/week)
  • The PPD rate for work injuries on/after January 1, 2027, has been increased to $462/week.

While these amounts may seem incremental, the weekly amounts increase the overall “value” of a case exponentially.  For example, when a doctor assigns a Percentage of Permanent Partial Disability at the end of healing, the worker receives the PPD payout through a formula, based on the body part injured and the percentage of permanent disability (i.e., how “wrecked” is the body part).  Specifically, each body part carries a defined statutory weekly value and the PPD percentage is out of that starting value; for example, a completed damaged ankle is “worth” 250 wks, a knee is equal to 425 weeks, and a back is equal to 1000 weeks.   Accordingly, if there is a 10% PPD to an injured worker’s lumbar spine, the worker can claim 100 weeks (10% of 1000) at the PPD rate in effect as of the date of injury.

With the new law, that means increased benefits for workers.  If a worker has an injury on/after April 1^st of this year, a knee ACL repair (“worth” 10% PPD) is equal to $19,295 (42.5 weeks @ $454/wk); a total knee replacement (“worth” 50% PPD) is equal to $96,475 (212.50 weeks @ $454/wk); and a low back fusion surgery (“worth” 10% of a spine) is equal to $45,400 (100 weeks @ $454/wk).  The increased PPD creates these larger values for a work injury.

2. Permanent Total Disability Increases

The new bill increases supplemental benefits for “older” permanent total disability (PTD) claims. Workers who are permanently totally disabled receive 2/3 of their weekly wages for life.  However, their weekly wage is set at the time of injury, and in many cases the weekly benefits certainly do not keep up with the cost of living. 

Past law allowed for some PTD workers—only with injury dates before January 1, 2003—to receive supplemental benefits (increased proportionally to the maximum wage rate annually).  The new law expands that eligibility to workers with injury dates before January 1, 2020, which dramatically increases the amount of PTD workers eligible for the supplemental/cost of living annual increases.

3. Elimination of Restricted Accounts

Traditionally, when an injured worker settled a worker’s compensation case, Administrative Law Judges required the worker to place some of their settlement funds into a “restricted bank account.” These paternalistic accounts allowed the worker to only access a certain amount per month from these accounts—effectively creating a forced savings account (and the government telling a worker what to do with their money). Our firm has advocated for the removal of these accounts for over twenty years.

At long last, the new law eliminates the need for restricted accounts, allowing workers to receive the entire amount of their tax-free settlement in a lump sum. This is a huge victory for injured workers.

Other Important Provisions in the New Law.

The newly signed agreed-upon bill also contains significant changes to Chapter 102 (the Wisconsin Workers’ Compensation Act):

• Expanding PTSD coverage for emergency medical personnel. Previous law allowed for limited mental health benefits for police officers and firefighters suffering from work-related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  The law “eased” the legal standard applicable to these claims, and provided worker’s compensation coverage for 32 weeks of disability.  The law, however, left out certain other important emergency personnel. The new law expands PTSD worker’s compensation coverage to: emergency medical responders; emergency medical services practitioners; and volunteer or part-time firefighters.
• Expansion of medical personnel who can support a work comp claim. To pursue a worker’s compensation claim, a worker needs a medical professional to provide an opinion on causation and extent of disability/permanency. Traditionally, such reports could only be provided by physicians (M.D. or D.O.), psychologists (Ph.D.), podiatrists, or chiropractors. The new law indicates that physician assistants (P.A.) and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses can provide legally sufficient opinions causation and extent of disability. Furthermore, the law allows audiologists to provide opinions on causation and extent of disability in a hearing loss claim.
• Changes the “Stacking” PPD rules. When a worker underwent multiple surgical procedures to the same joint, the Administrative Code minimum PPDs for each surgical procedure were “stacked” to result in a larger, cumulative total. For example, if a worker had a work-related knee replacement, it carried a minimum 50% PPD under the Administrative Code (equal to 215.50 weeks of PPD benefits). However, if the worker then later underwent an additional knee replacement to  the same knee (additional 50%), the two knee replacements would be stacked or added together for a 100% cumulative total.  The new law eliminates the stacking of PPD in the circumstance when a worker undergoes “the same surgical procedure” a second or subsequent time on the same limb. The law also indicates the PPD assessment needs to be made by medical professional.
• No statute of limitation for shoulder replacement claims. For certain specified traumatic injuries (amputations, loss of vision, permanent brain injury, total or partial knee or hip replacement) there effectively is no statute of limitations (which generally is 6 years from the date of injury or last payment for traumatic injuries). The law expands the elimination of the statute of limitations for workers who undergo shoulder replacements or reverse shoulder replacement surgeries.

Overall, this is a bill that improves the benefits for injured workers and strengthens the worker’s compensation system in Wisconsin–a victory for all involved.

(This post was written exclusively by the author. No generative A.I. assistance involved!)