Yes. The Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act provides special monetary compensation for certain permanent injuries. The Act simply lists those body parts that trigger eligibility for such compensation. If an injured worker has a permanent injury to a listed body part, he is entitled to some monetary compensation. The amounts are not great considering the loss lasts a lifetime, but they are better than nothing.
The covered body parts and their respective values are: thumb (60 weeks); index finger (35 weeks); second finger (30 weeks); third finger (20 weeks); fourth finger (15 weeks); big toe (30 weeks); all other toes (10 weeks each); hand (150 weeks); arm (200 weeks); foot (125 weeks); leg (175 weeks); loss of vision of an eye (100 weeks); loss of hearing of an ear (50 weeks); severely marked disfigurement of the body (no more than 60 weeks). This list is exhaustive—there is no entitlement to compensation for permanent injuries to other body parts (e.g., neck, back, or “whole body” impairments).
Total loss or loss of use of a listed body part entitles the injured worker to the set amount of weekly compensation payments listed above at his base workers’ compensation benefit rate (i.e., two-thirds of his pre-injury average weekly wage). Partial loss or loss of use of the body part entitles the injured worker to the corresponding percentage of the whole. For example, a 10% loss of use of the arm entitles the injured worker to 20 weeks of compensation; 5% loss of use of the hand is worth 7.5 weeks of compensation; 15% to a leg is valued at 26.25 weeks; and so on.