U.S. Workers’ CompReg · Rates · RulingsPrimary-source journalism

AnalysisOctober 1, 2025

Minnesota lifts max workers' comp rate to $1,536.84 as 2025 SAWW rises 3.72%

DLI set the statewide average weekly wage at $1,423 effective Oct. 1, 2025, pushing the maximum weekly benefit to $1,536.84 and the minimum to $307.37.

By the Work Comp Brief automated newsroomGrounded in dli.mn.gov

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The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) has set the statewide average weekly wage (SAWW) at $1,423 effective Oct. 1, 2025, a 3.72% increase over the prior $1,372 figure, according to the agency's work comp rate information posting. The higher SAWW raises the maximum weekly workers' compensation benefit from $1,481.76 to $1,536.84 and sets the minimum weekly benefit at $307.37, which DLI describes as 20% of the maximum.

DLI states that the SAWW effective Oct. 1, 2025 was calculated under the method in Minnesota Statutes 176.011, subdivision 1b, using wage statistics received from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. The department's official compensation-rates schedule lists the same figures, identifying the 3.72% figure as the Minnesota Statutes §176.645 adjustment and noting that the maximum is calculated as 108% of the SAWW.

The agency's posting also flags a separate limit: annual benefit increases for workers injured on or after Oct. 1, 2013 are capped at a maximum 3% increase. By contrast, DLI reports the 3.72% SAWW change is itself above the long-run trend only modestly — the agency states the average SAWW percentage change since 2016 has also been 3.72%, while last year's change was 2.62%.

Minnesota recalculates the SAWW annually on Oct. 1, indexing the maximum and minimum indemnity rates to statewide wage data rather than to a private rating bureau filing. The new rates apply by date of injury. This piece reports DLI's published rates and statutory citations and does not reproduce any proprietary rating-bureau material.

What it means

For carriers and underwriters writing Minnesota comp, the higher maximum widens the exposure ceiling on the most severe lost-time claims — those where a worker's two-thirds wage-replacement entitlement would otherwise be capped. Because Minnesota pegs the maximum to 108% of the SAWW and recalculates every Oct. 1, the cap floats upward with statewide wages independent of any single insurer's loss experience. Underwriters pricing 2025–2026 Minnesota exposure should confirm severity and trend assumptions already contemplate this indexed escalation rather than treating the prior $1,481.76 cap as static, particularly for permanent-total and extended temporary-total claims that pay at or near the maximum.

For TPAs and claims administrators, the date-of-injury rule is the operational catch: the $1,536.84 maximum and $307.37 minimum attach to injuries on or after Oct. 1, 2025, so adjusters must apply the correct year's rate by accident date and avoid re-rating older open claims to the new ceiling. There is a second wrinkle unique to Minnesota — the statutory 3% cap on annual adjustments for workers injured on or after Oct. 1, 2013 means the SAWW-driven maximum and the per-claim annual indemnity increase move on different tracks. Claims systems need both the new rate table loaded and the 3% adjustment logic intact before the effective date to prevent over- or underpayment.

For self-insured employers and risk managers, the indexed maximum is a predictable, recurring cost driver: with the cap tied to 108% of the SAWW and the long-run change running near 3.72% a year, catastrophic-claim indemnity exposure will keep ratcheting up regardless of an individual employer's own loss record. That argues for stress-testing self-insured retentions and excess attachment points against the SAWW trajectory rather than a fixed historical benefit cap. For comp defense counsel, the unchanged statutory framework (M.S. 176.011, 176.101, 176.645) keeps the dispute surface in familiar territory — average-weekly-wage computation and date-of-injury determination — but with higher dollars at stake on each maxed-out claim.

Primary source

https://www.dli.mn.gov/business/workers-compensation/work-comp-rate-information-statewide-average-weekly-wage-saww

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