How Whole Person Impairment Determines Settlement Value of Your California Workers’ Comp Case (2025 Guide)
How Whole Person Impairment Determines the Value of Your Workers’ Comp Case
One of the most common questions we get from injured workers across California is simple:
“How do they figure out what my case is worth?”
The answer comes down to the Permanent Disability (PD) rating formula a series of adjustments that convert your doctor’s medical opinion into a percentage that directly determines your settlement value.
For all injuries on or after January 1, 2023, California uses the 2005 Permanent Disability Rating Schedule (PDRS). Here’s how it works, step-by-step.
At Lee Partners Law: Work Injury Attorneys, we are experts in ensuring the formula is properly applied to maximize your whole person impairment.
Step 1: The Doctor Assigns a Whole Person Impairment (WPI)
Your Primary Treating Physician (PTP) or Panel Qualified Medical Examiner (PQME) will issue a report with a specific WPI percentage based on the AMA Guides 5th Edition. Every single body part and condition has a correspondence Whole Person Impairment. This must be provided by a medical doctor. (However, at Lee Partners Law, we are experts are challenging doctors to ensure the correct and highest valued impairment is assigned to each condition)
Example:
A lumbar spine injury might result in an 8% WPI under Table 15-3, Diagnosis-Related Estimate (DRE) Category II, code 15.03.01.01.
This “raw” impairment percentage is the foundation of your case value.
At Lee Partners Law, we frequently challenge medical reports to ensure the correct and highest possible impairment is assigned for each injured body part.
Step 2: Universal Adjustment – The 1.4 Multiplier
California law applies a universal adjustment factor of 1.4 to all impairments to convert Whole Person Impairment into Standard Permanent Disability.
Example:
8% WPI × 1.4 = 11% Standard PD
Step 3: Occupational Adjustment
Every job has an Occupational Variant Code listed in the Schedule.
Physically demanding jobs—like warehouse, construction, and delivery—carry higher modifiers 300 - 400 series while office or clerical work carries lower ones in the 100 series
Example:
A warehouse worker (code 360 G) who uses their back all day receives a +2% increase, bringing the rating from 11% to 13% PD.
An accountant (code 112 C) with the same medical rating might go down 2% because the job does not require the same physical demand.
This adjustment recognizes that losing the same function affects different jobs in different ways.
Step 4: Age Adjustment
The next step considers age at the time of injury.
Workers aged 37–41 receive no change.
Younger workers get a small reduction, while older workers get a boost because age limits rehabilitation potential and earning capacity.
Example:
If you’re 50, your 13% PD rating goes up to 15%.
Step 5: Putting It All Together
So for a 50-year-old warehouse worker with an 8% WPI lumbar injury, the calculation might look like this:
15.03.01.01.01 - 8% WPI - 1.4 - 11 - 360G 13% - 15%
That 15% PD rating will then be converted into weeks of money owed. When multiple body parts are involved, the Schedule allows for combining impairments using either:
the Combined Values Chart, or
simple addition under Vigil v. County of Kern (2024) (En Banc)
Which method applies can significantly impact your settlement value— and that’s a topic we’ll cover in another article.
Why Accuracy Matters
That’s why our attorneys at Lee Partners Law David A. Lee, Esq. and Michael E. Lee, Esq. review every QME or PTP report line-by-line to make sure the doctor applied the AMA Guides correctly and that your occupational and age modifiers are applied to your benefit.
We represent injured workers across Los Angeles, Riverside, inland San Bernardino, San Diego, and the High Desert, ensuring every case reaches its true settlement value.