Supplemental Earnings Benefits: Eligibility, Calculation, and Duration

Louisiana Supplemental Earnings Benefits pay you two-thirds of the wages you lose when a work injury leaves you unable to earn at least 90 percent of your pre-injury pay, for up to 520 weeks. SEB fills the gap that temporary total disability benefits don’t cover: the long stretch where you can work but your injury keeps you from getting back to your old paycheck.

Who Qualifies

Under La. R.S. 23:1221(3), you qualify for SEB if a work-related injury leaves you unable to earn wages equal to 90 percent or more of what you were earning at the time of the accident.¹ The focus is on your wage gap, not the severity of the physical injury. A back injury that drops your earning power from $4,000 a month to $3,400 a month clears the threshold, because $3,400 is less than 90 percent of $4,000. A torn rotator cuff that still lets you earn $3,700 out of $4,000 does not.

You carry the initial burden. You have to prove the injury was work-related and that it caused the earning drop, which takes medical documentation tying your physical restrictions to the accident. Once your post-injury wages are shown to fall below the 90 percent line, the insurer can push back by proving you are physically capable of earning more in jobs available in your area.¹ Most SEB disputes turn on that second step.

How Your Payment Is Calculated

SEB runs on monthly figures. To convert your average weekly wage into a monthly number, multiply it by 52 and divide by 12, which comes out to a multiplier of roughly 4.33.¹

Your average weekly wage itself depends on how you were paid. For hourly workers employed 40 or more hours per week, it is your hourly rate multiplied by either the average actual hours worked in the four full weeks before the accident or 40 hours, whichever is higher.² Different rules apply to salaried, seasonal, and part-time workers. Overtime, bonuses, and commissions from the lookback period count.

Once you have the pre-injury monthly figure, the formula is simple. Subtract what you currently earn (or what the insurer proves you could earn) from your pre-injury average monthly wages. Your monthly SEB payment is 66⅔ percent of that difference.¹

An example. Your pre-injury weekly wage was $1,000, so your monthly figure is $4,333. After the injury, you take a lighter-duty job paying $2,500 a month. The wage gap is $1,833. Two-thirds of $1,833 gives you a monthly SEB check of about $1,222.

If you are not working at all and the insurer has not proven you could be earning something, SEB is paid the same way temporary total disability is, covering the full wage gap at two-thirds. That changes as soon as the insurer establishes an earning capacity through vocational evidence.

Weekly Maximum and Minimum

Louisiana caps the weekly benefit regardless of how high your pre-injury wages were. From September 1, 2025 through August 31, 2026, the maximum weekly compensation rate is $877 and the minimum is $234.³ If your actual pre-injury wages were below the minimum rate, you receive your actual wages instead. The caps update annually.

How Earning Capacity Gets Set When You Are Not Working

The statute says your post-injury earning capacity cannot be less than the wages you actually receive, including from odd-lot or part-time work.¹ If you are earning less than you could, the insurer can argue your capacity should be pegged higher based on jobs you are physically able to do that were offered to you or proven available in your community or a reasonable geographic area.

In practice, insurers hire vocational rehabilitation experts to identify specific job openings that match your documented restrictions. If a vocational expert finds three local employers hiring for positions within your limits at $2,800 a month, the insurer can plug that figure in as your earning capacity even if you never applied. Your SEB check drops accordingly.

You can push back. If you show by clear and convincing evidence that substantial pain from your injury prevents you from performing the identified work, a workers’ compensation judge can deem you incapable of that employment.¹ Clear and convincing is a tougher standard than the usual preponderance, but it exists for cases where the jobs look feasible on paper and the pain makes them impossible in practice.

How Long SEB Lasts

SEB can run up to 520 weeks, roughly ten years. Only weeks in which you actually receive SEB count against that cap. Weeks where you received temporary total disability or no benefits at all do not reduce your 520-week maximum.¹

Benefits can end earlier in three ways:

Your monthly earnings return to 90 percent or more of your pre-injury wages.
Two years pass after your temporary total disability ends without you receiving SEB for at least 13 consecutive weeks during that period. When that happens, your right to SEB terminates.¹
You retire. SEB ends at retirement, though you are guaranteed a minimum of 104 weeks regardless of when retirement begins.¹

The two-year gap rule catches people off guard. If you return to work near your old wages and don’t file for SEB, then your condition worsens two years later, you may have permanently lost the right to collect. Track your earnings against the 90 percent threshold from the moment your temporary benefits stop.

Filing Deadlines

Louisiana’s prescription period for workers’ compensation claims is one year from the accident. If you do not file a formal claim with the Office of Workers’ Compensation or reach a payment agreement with the insurer within that year, your right to benefits is gone.⁴

If indemnity payments have already been made, the clock resets. For SEB specifically, the limitation does not run until three years after the last payment of any indemnity benefit, whether temporary total, permanent total, SEB, or permanent partial disability.⁴ For injuries that develop after the accident rather than immediately, the one-year period starts when the injury manifests, but a hard three-year cap from the accident date still applies.

When the Insurer Owes Penalties

Under La. R.S. 23:1201, an insurer that discontinues SEB without probable cause can be hit with a penalty of up to $8,000 plus reasonable attorney fees.⁵

For routine late payments that are not necessarily arbitrary but still untimely, the penalty is the greater of 12 percent of the unpaid amount or $50 per calendar day, capped at $2,000 per claim. If a final, non-appealable judgment sits unpaid for more than 30 days, the penalty rises to 24 percent of the award or $100 per day, plus attorney fees. These penalties do not apply where the insurer has a legitimate basis for disputing the claim. When a judge orders penalty attorney fees, they come out of the insurer’s pocket rather than reducing your benefit.⁵

How Fraud Costs You Everything

Misrepresenting your condition or hiding income while collecting SEB can wipe out your entire claim. Under La. R.S. 23:1208, false statements made to obtain workers’ compensation benefits carry criminal penalties that scale with the amount involved:⁶

$10,000 or more in fraudulent benefits: up to 10 years in prison, up to $10,000 in fines, or both.
$2,500 to $9,999: up to 5 years in prison, up to $5,000 in fines, or both.
Under $2,500: up to 6 months in jail, up to $500 in fines, or both.

A workers’ compensation judge can also impose civil penalties between $500 and $5,000 and order restitution. The harshest consequence is forfeiture: any employee who violates the fraud statute forfeits all rights to compensation benefits under Louisiana’s workers’ compensation system, not just SEB but medical too.⁶ Insurers routinely conduct surveillance on claimants. A single social media post showing physical activity inconsistent with your reported restrictions can trigger an investigation.

Taxes and Social Security

Workers’ compensation benefits, including SEB, are fully exempt from federal income tax. The IRS treats all amounts received under a workers’ compensation act as nontaxable, regardless of whether the payment covers lost wages, medical expenses, or disability. No withholding, no reporting on your return. If you return on light duty, the wages your employer pays are taxable as ordinary income even while your SEB stays tax-free.⁷

If you draw both Social Security Disability Insurance and SEB at the same time, the combined amount cannot exceed 80 percent of your average current earnings before the disability. When the total crosses that line, Social Security reduces your SSDI payment by the excess, and the reduction continues until you reach full retirement age or your workers’ compensation stops.⁸ Louisiana allows a reverse offset in some cases, where the state benefit is reduced instead, which can produce a higher combined total. Run the numbers both ways before accepting a settlement.

1
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 23 RS 23-1221 – Temporary Total Disability; Supplemental Earnings Benefits
2
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 23-1021 – Terms Defined
3
Louisiana Workforce Commission. Office of Workers’ Compensation Average Wage and Min/Max Rates
4
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 23 RS 23-1209 – Prescription; Timeliness of Filing
5
FindLaw. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 23 Section 1201
6
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 23-1208 – Misrepresentation
7
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 525 (2025), Taxable and Nontaxable Income
8
Social Security Administration. How Workers’ Compensation and Other Disability Payments May Affect Your Benefits