"Man as a Whole" in Illinois Workers’ Compensation

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Workers’ compensation in Illinois has its own language, and some of the terms can be confusing for anyone who hasn’t been through the system before. One of the most misunderstood is “man as a whole.”

If you’ve been injured on the job and your case settles, the value of your injury is usually expressed as a percentage loss of use of a certain body part. The law assigns a set number of “weeks” to each body part, and your settlement is based on that number. For example, in Illinois:

• A leg is worth 215 weeks of benefits.
• An arm is worth 253 weeks.
• A hand is worth 205 weeks.

If you were to lose your entire leg, you’d get 215 weeks of permanent partial disability benefits (PPD). If you had surgery and were found to have a 30% loss of use of the leg, you’d get 64.5 weeks of benefits, even if you can still walk normally. Your PPD rate is 60% of your average weekly wage.

How “Man as a Whole” Is Different

Some injuries don’t fit into a single body part category. For example, there’s no separate payout chart for the back, neck, shoulder or head. Instead, those areas fall under the “man as a whole” category. Suffering a brain injury or having a back fusion due to a job accident are just two examples.

“Man as a whole” is based on a 500-week scale, making these cases some of the most valuable in Illinois workers’ compensation. Serious back injuries, head trauma, or other conditions affecting your overall body function can fall into this category. Even shoulder injuries are currently treated as “man as a whole” cases. So 20% “loss of the man as a whole” would be a payout of 100 weeks of PPD benefits. So if you earn $1,500 a week your PPD rate would be $900 and your settlement would be $90,000.00. As you can see, man as a whole settlements can be really significant, often more than you would make in one year of work. That is because injuries to these body parts can be so serious and life altering.

When You Have More Than One Case

One big difference between “man as a whole” cases and other injuries is how future injuries are handled. If you injure a specific body part (like your arm) more than once, your second settlement will be reduced by the percentage you were awarded for the first injury. For example:

• 2019: You get 15% loss of the leg.
• 2025: You suffer a new injury worth 25% loss of the leg.
• Result: You only get paid for 10% because the insurance company gets credit for the old award.

With “man as a whole” cases, there’s no credit for prior injuries. That means you could have multiple serious injuries over time and get paid the full amount for each, even if they affect the same general areas. You could get a settlement in 2023 for 20% loss of the man and then in 2026 get another settlement for 20% loss of the man. And unlike specific body part cases, you would get the full payout.

Why These Cases Are Worth More

Injuries to the back, neck, head, shoulder or other parts that affect your overall function can have a major impact on your ability to work and live normally. Because of that, the law values them more highly. A 40% “man as a whole” settlement can be worth about as much as losing an entire leg under the workers’ comp schedule.