VA Disability Percentages for Conditions: Ratings, Pay, and Combinations

The VA rates each service-connected condition from 0% to 100% in 10-point increments using the Schedule for Rating Disabilities, and those VA disability percentages for conditions translate directly into monthly compensation ranging from $180.42 at 10% to $3,938.58 at 100% for a single veteran with no dependents in 2026.¹ The percentage assigned to any given condition depends on specific criteria written into 38 CFR Part 4, and when a veteran has more than one condition, the percentages are combined using VA math rather than simple addition.

How Percentages Are Assigned

The rating schedule at 38 CFR Part 4 organizes conditions by body system and gives each a diagnostic code with criteria for every rating level. A 0% rating means the condition is service-connected but not disabling enough to pay. A 100% rating means the impairment is “sufficient to render it impossible for the average person to follow a substantially gainful occupation.”²

A few rules shape how the percentages come out:

When the evidence is roughly balanced, the VA must resolve doubt in the veteran’s favor.
If a disability picture falls between two levels, the higher percentage is assigned.
The same disability cannot be rated under multiple diagnostic codes (no pyramiding).
A veteran’s age plays no role in the rating.

Percentages for Common Conditions

The full schedule covers hundreds of diagnostic codes, but a handful of conditions drive most claims. The criteria below are what a rater applies to decide the percentage.

PTSD, Depression, and Anxiety

All mental health conditions are rated under one General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders at 38 CFR § 4.130, based on the degree of occupational and social impairment.³ PTSD uses diagnostic code 9411.

0%: Diagnosis exists but symptoms don’t interfere with work or social functioning and don’t require continuous medication.
10%: Mild or transient symptoms that reduce work efficiency only during significant stress, or symptoms controlled by continuous medication.
30%: Occasional decreases in work efficiency, with symptoms like depressed mood, anxiety, weekly or less frequent panic attacks, chronic sleep problems, and mild memory loss.
50%: Reduced reliability and productivity, with symptoms such as flattened affect, panic attacks more than once a week, impaired memory, difficulty understanding complex commands, and disturbances of motivation and mood.
70%: Deficiencies in most areas of life, with symptoms such as suicidal ideation, near-continuous panic or depression, impaired impulse control, neglect of personal hygiene, and inability to establish effective relationships.
100%: Total occupational and social impairment, with symptoms including persistent delusions or hallucinations, grossly inappropriate behavior, persistent danger of hurting oneself or others, disorientation to time or place, and severe memory loss.

Back and Spine

Back conditions are rated primarily on range of motion under the General Rating Formula at 38 CFR § 4.71a. For the thoracolumbar spine:²

10%: Forward flexion greater than 60° but not greater than 85°, or combined range of motion greater than 120° but not greater than 235°, or muscle spasm or guarding without abnormal gait or spinal contour.
20%: Forward flexion greater than 30° but not greater than 60°, or combined range of motion not greater than 120°, or muscle spasm severe enough to cause abnormal gait or spinal contour.
40%: Forward flexion 30° or less, or favorable ankylosis of the entire thoracolumbar spine.
50%: Unfavorable ankylosis of the entire thoracolumbar spine.
100%: Unfavorable ankylosis of the entire spine.

Intervertebral disc syndrome can be rated instead on incapacitating episodes of doctor-prescribed bed rest. Six or more weeks a year is 60%; four to six weeks is 40%. The VA must apply whichever formula produces the higher rating, and examiners are required to estimate additional loss of motion during flare-ups even when the exam falls outside one.

Tinnitus and Hearing Loss

Tinnitus has a maximum schedular rating of 10% under diagnostic code 6260. Only one 10% evaluation is assigned regardless of whether the ringing is in one ear, both ears, or the head.⁴ That 10% can combine with a separate hearing loss rating.

Hearing loss (diagnostic code 6100) is rated almost mechanically. The VA measures pure tone thresholds at 1000, 2000, 3000, and 4000 Hz along with speech discrimination on the Maryland CNC test, plots the results on a table that assigns each ear an auditory acuity level of I through XI, then converts those two levels into a percentage.⁵ Because the numbers drive the rating, veterans with real functional hearing difficulty often receive low or 0% ratings when the audiometric results don’t meet the threshold.

Migraines

Migraines are rated under diagnostic code 8100 from 0% to 50%, based on the frequency and severity of prostrating attacks — attacks that produce “extreme exhaustion or powerlessness”:⁶

0%: Less frequent attacks.
10%: Prostrating attacks averaging once every two months over the last several months.
30%: Prostrating attacks averaging once a month over the last several months.
50%: Very frequent, completely prostrating, and prolonged attacks productive of severe economic inadaptability.

The 50% level does not require actual unemployment. Board precedent has read “productive of severe economic inadaptability” to mean the migraines are capable of producing a significant inability to participate in the economic marketplace.⁶

Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is rated at 0%, 30%, 50%, or 100%. The 50% rating applies when a veteran requires use of a CPAP machine, which makes it one of the more straightforward ratings to document. A 100% rating requires chronic respiratory failure with carbon dioxide retention or the need for a tracheostomy.

How Multiple Conditions Combine

Most veterans have more than one service-connected condition, and the VA does not add the percentages together. It uses a “whole person” method: you start at 100% able-bodied, and each disability reduces only the remaining healthy portion.⁷

Disabilities are ranked from highest to lowest. The highest is subtracted from 100%. Each next rating is applied only to what’s left. A 50% and a 30% rating combine to 65% on the VA’s combined ratings table, not 80%. Add a 10% rating and the result is 69%.⁷ The final number rounds to the nearest multiple of 10: values ending 5 through 9 round up, 1 through 4 round down. So 69% becomes a 70% combined rating.⁸

This is why two 50% ratings produce a combined 75%, which rounds to 80% rather than the 100% simple addition would suggest. Conditions affecting both sides of the body may get a small bump through the bilateral factor, but the method itself doesn’t change.⁸

What Each Percentage Pays in 2026

The rates below take effect December 1, 2025, for a single veteran with no dependents:¹

10%: $180.42
20%: $356.66
30%: $552.47
40%: $795.84
50%: $1,132.90
60%: $1,435.02
70%: $1,808.45
80%: $2,102.15
90%: $2,362.30
100%: $3,938.58

Rates at 10% and 20% are flat regardless of dependents. Starting at 30%, additional amounts are paid for a spouse, children, and dependent parents. A veteran rated 100% with a spouse, for example, receives $4,158.17 per month.¹

When 100% Pay Applies Below a 100% Rating

A veteran whose service-connected disabilities prevent substantially gainful employment can be paid at the 100% rate even without a 100% combined schedular rating. This is Total Disability Based on Individual Unemployability (TDIU).⁹ The standard schedular path requires either one condition rated at 60% or higher, or a combined rating of 70% or higher with at least one condition at 40% or higher.¹⁰

Veterans below those thresholds can still qualify through an extraschedular path when the disability picture is unusual, such as frequent hospitalizations or marked interference with employment. “Substantially gainful employment” means full-time work paying above the poverty level; marginal or sheltered work does not disqualify a veteran from TDIU.¹⁰

Adding Percentages Through Secondary and Presumptive Conditions

A veteran can also gain rating percentages for conditions that were caused or worsened by an already service-connected disability. This is secondary service connection under 38 CFR § 3.310, and once granted, the secondary condition gets its own rating that feeds into the combined percentage.¹¹ Common examples include depression or anxiety secondary to chronic pain, radiculopathy secondary to a spine condition, hip problems from an altered gait after a knee injury, and gastrointestinal conditions from medication taken for a service-connected condition.¹² Establishing the link generally takes a current diagnosis and a medical nexus opinion connecting the two conditions.

When a secondary claim involves aggravation of a pre-existing non-service-connected condition, the VA sets a baseline severity and rates only the worsening attributable to service.¹¹ Depression developing within three years of a moderate or severe traumatic brain injury is presumed secondary without additional proof.

Presumptive conditions work similarly but skip the causation proof entirely. Under the PACT Act, veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic hazards only need to show they served in a qualifying location and have the diagnosis.¹³ The Act added more than 20 presumptive conditions, including brain, gastrointestinal, pancreatic, respiratory, reproductive, kidney, and lymphoma cancers, melanoma, asthma diagnosed after service, COPD, chronic bronchitis, constrictive bronchiolitis, and pulmonary fibrosis.¹⁴ It also added hypertension and monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance for Vietnam-era veterans. Veterans previously denied for a condition now covered can file a Supplemental Claim for re-evaluation.

If Your Percentage Seems Too Low

The Compensation and Pension exam is usually what drives the percentage the rater assigns. The examiner works from a Disability Benefits Questionnaire specific to the condition, may perform a physical exam, and may order tests, then produces a report a VA rater uses to set the percentage.¹⁵ Missing the exam without good cause can push the VA to decide on existing evidence alone, which often means a lower rating or denial.¹⁶ A veteran can also have a private physician complete a DBQ and submit it, though the VA won’t reimburse the cost.

Within one year of a rating decision, a veteran can request a Higher-Level Review, file a Supplemental Claim with new and relevant evidence, or appeal directly to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals.¹⁷ A claim for increase can be filed at any time if a condition has worsened since it was last evaluated, using VA Form 21-526EZ, and it usually triggers a new C&P exam. A claim for increase on an existing service-connected condition is separate from a new claim for a condition not previously claimed, and the filing path affects the effective date and back pay.

Veterans Service Organizations help with claims and appeals at no charge, and VA-accredited attorneys can represent veterans before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals in more complex disputes.

1
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans Disability Compensation Rates
2
eCFR. Title 38, Chapter I, Part 4 — Schedule for Rating Disabilities
3
Cornell Law Institute. 38 CFR § 4.130 — Schedule of Ratings, Mental Disorders
4
eCFR. 38 CFR § 4.87 — Schedule of Ratings, Ear
5
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Board of Veterans Appeals Decision, Citation A21003425
6
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Board of Veterans Appeals Decision, Citation A22005658
7
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. About VA Disability Ratings
8
DAV. Unraveling the Mystery of VA Rating Math
9
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. VA Individual Unemployability
10
VA News. Individual Unemployability — Understanding the Basics
11
Cornell Law Institute. 38 CFR § 3.310 — Disabilities That Are Proximately Due To, or Aggravated By, Service-Connected Disease or Injury
12
North Dakota Department of Veterans Affairs. Secondary Service Connection Training
13
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The PACT Act and Your VA Benefits
14
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Specific Environmental Hazards and VA Disability Compensation
15
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. VA Claim Exam
16
Wounded Warrior Project. Preparing for a C&P Exam: 4 Things Veterans Should Know
17
DAV. VA Benefits Help