What is the rating for a 30 year old heavy furniture assembler with an 8% impairment standard?

• A. 9%
• B. 11%
• C. 15%
• D. 19%

Answer: (A)

In California, the permanent disability rating mixes the impairment percentage with age and occupation modifiers to reflect how a given injury affects earning capacity. You start with the impairment rating, then add adjustments for the worker’s age and their job’s physical demands. A younger worker in a physically demanding occupation typically gets a small upward adjustment, because losing function at a younger age can impact long-term earning potential more than the same impairment would for an older worker.

For a 30-year-old heavy furniture assembler with an 8% impairment, the age and occupation modifiers combine to produce a final permanent disability rating of 9%. The 8% impairment is the baseline; the modifiers in this specific scenario add just one percentage point, yielding 9%.

Larger increases (to around 11% or higher) would require bigger adjustments than this combination provides, which is why the final rating isn’t higher in this case.