Mays Law Office · Updated October 2026

Wisconsin workers’ comp covers reasonable and necessary medical treatment of a compensable Stevens Point work injury with no waiting period. Temporary total disability pays two-thirds of your average weekly wage, capped, while the compensable injury keeps you from earning wages during healing, after a three-day wait (unworked Sundays excluded), with exceptions. Tell your employer right away; get care without delay.

This page covers the jobs Portage County residents hold and the injuries those jobs bring, how a disputed Stevens Point claim moves now that the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) hears contested cases again, and the benefits and deadlines that apply statewide. If the insurer denied your claim, stopped or shorted a check, or sent you to a doctor it picked, call 608-305-4518 for a free consultation.

Work and Injuries in Portage County

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2025 county employment figures, manufacturing is the largest private industry with published numbers in Portage County: 4,682 jobs, or 16.0 percent of the county’s 29,280 private-sector jobs, a little under the 17.9 percent manufacturing holds across Wisconsin’s private economy in the same data. Finance and insurance came next with 4,209 jobs (14.4 percent), then retail trade with 3,983 (13.6 percent), accommodation and food services with 3,105 (10.6 percent) and transportation and warehousing with 1,847 (6.3 percent).

That ranking has gaps: to protect the confidentiality of individual employers, BLS did not publish 2025 Portage County figures for several sectors, among them health care and social assistance, construction and wholesale trade, so the table ranks only the sectors with published counts.

Portage County at a glance

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, Portage County annual averages for 2025, showing the five largest private sectors with published figures; each share is of the county’s 29,280 private-sector jobs.

The Census Bureau’s 2020–2024 American Community Survey counts the county from the other direction, by the occupations of its 37,937 employed residents, wherever they work. In that survey, 8.8 percent of working Portage County residents hold production jobs, 8.5 percent work in health care practitioner, technologist or support occupations, 8.2 percent in transportation and material moving, and 4.8 percent in construction and extraction. Set against the same survey’s statewide figures, the county sits a little below Wisconsin in production (9.2 percent), below it in health care occupations (10.1 percent), about level in transportation and material moving (8.1 percent) and a little above it in construction and extraction (4.5 percent).

Inside the city limits, each of those groups makes up a smaller share of Stevens Point’s 15,139 employed residents than of the county’s: 8.3 percent in production, 7.6 percent in transportation and material moving, 6.8 percent in health care occupations and 3 percent in construction and extraction.

Farming, fishing and forestry occupations are more common in the county than statewide: they employ 1.2 percent of Portage County’s working residents, one and a half times Wisconsin’s 0.8 percent. Wisconsin’s law covers a farm employer that employs six or more workers on each of 20 days in a calendar year, consecutive or not, starting 10 days after that 20th day (Wis. Stat. § 102.04(1)(c)); DWD notes that certain relatives are not counted toward the six.

Each of these kinds of work wears on the body differently. Manufacturing brings machine and crush injuries, lifting strains, and damage to hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders from repeating the same motion through a shift. Insurance and finance offices carry quieter risks: long hours at a keyboard and mouse can bring on hand, wrist and neck conditions that build over months, and office workers slip, trip and fall like anyone else. Retail and restaurant work produces falls, cuts, burns and strains from stocking, lifting and carrying, while warehouse and trucking jobs bring loading-dock injuries, vehicle crashes and back injuries from heavy loads. Farm work adds machinery and livestock hazards.

Wisconsin’s system is no-fault, so a claim turns on whether the injury arose out of and in the course of the work, not on who was careless, though a causative failure to use a legally required, adequately maintained safety device whose use is reasonably enforced, or to obey a reasonable, reasonably enforced safety rule known to you, cuts compensation and death benefits 15 percent, up to $15,000, and a causative violation of the employer’s drug or alcohol policy bars compensation and death benefits, while medical treatment remains payable (Wis. Stat. § 102.58). Wisconsin usually treats a condition caused by repeated work activity, like the gradual ones above, as an occupational disease. Its date of injury is the date of disability or, if disability comes after all contributing employment has ended, the last day worked for the last employer whose employment caused it (Wis. Stat. § 102.01(2)(g)2). No statute of limitations applies to an occupational disease (Wis. Stat. § 102.17(4)(b)), although the separate two-year rule in Wis. Stat. § 102.12, explained below, still does.

For union members, the Wisconsin AFL-CIO lists the Stevens Point–Portage County Labor Council for this area.

If a Stevens Point Claim Is Disputed

Since January 1, 2026, disputed Stevens Point claims have been heard within the Department of Workforce Development. 2025 Wisconsin Act 33 returned the workers’ compensation hearing function and its staff to DWD’s Worker’s Compensation Division from the Department of Administration, where it had been housed since 2016, so the Division’s own administrative law judges now decide contested cases.

Your path into that system depends on whether you have hired a lawyer. Without one, DWD first refers the dispute to its Alternative Dispute Resolution Unit, where staff identify the issues, check that the medical information supports the claim, and contact you and the insurer if they believe it can be resolved without a hearing. If it cannot, you may apply for a formal hearing before an administrative law judge, and DWD will not schedule one until medical support is on file, usually a treating practitioner’s report. For certain workers without a lawyer, a judge also holds a pre-hearing conference to narrow the issues and explain what the hearing will involve.

Either side may also ask DWD to schedule a mediation conference, conducted by an administrative law judge, to discuss a mutually agreeable resolution without a formal hearing. DWD can set one after the other side confirms in writing that it agrees, and communications at the conference are confidential, with exceptions the rule lists (Wis. Admin. Code § DWD 80.16). Many hearing requests end in a settlement before a formal hearing ever takes place.

If the case goes to hearing, DWD sets the location. DWD states that hearings are generally held near the municipality of the applicant’s residence, and it holds hearings at seven locations: Madison, Milwaukee, Appleton, Eau Claire, Green Bay, La Crosse and Wausau. Of those seven, the nearest to Stevens Point is Wausau. DWD schedules hearings only by written letter, which gives the date, time and place and is served or mailed to each party at least 10 days before the hearing (Wis. Stat. § 102.17(1)(a)).

A party who disagrees with the judge’s decision can petition the Labor and Industry Review Commission, and DWD or the commission must receive the petition within 21 days after DWD mails the decision (Wis. Stat. § 102.18(3)); a party who disagrees with the commission can then start an action in circuit court — a summons and complaint, filed and served as the statute requires — within 30 days of the commission’s order (Wis. Stat. § 102.23(1)(a)). Filing the hearing application also tolls the statute of limitations until the case is finally resolved, though never beyond the later of that final disposition or the date the period would otherwise have ended, and the limitation period runs again if the application is dismissed without prejudice (Wis. Stat. § 102.17(4)(a)1).

Stevens Point Workers’ Comp Questions

Where would a hearing on my Stevens Point workers’ comp claim be held?

DWD decides and states the place in its written hearing notice, which is served or mailed to each party at least 10 days before the hearing. DWD states that hearings are generally held near the municipality where the applicant, usually the injured worker, lives. The Worker’s Compensation Division holds hearings in seven cities, Madison, Milwaukee, Appleton, Eau Claire, Green Bay, La Crosse and Wausau, and Wausau is the closest of the seven to Stevens Point. Because DWD schedules hearings only by written letter, confirm with the Division before acting on a phone call, text or email that claims to set your hearing.

My hands and wrists got worse over months at a Stevens Point job, with no single accident. Can that be workers’ comp?

It can be. Wisconsin usually treats a condition caused by repeated work activity as an occupational disease. Its date of injury is the date of disability or, if disability comes after all contributing employment has ended, the last day worked for the last employer whose employment caused it (Wis. Stat. § 102.01(2)(g)2). Notify your employer within 30 days of the injury or of when you knew or ought to have known the nature of the disability and its relation to your work. An occupational disease has no statute of limitations, but Wis. Stat. § 102.12 can still bar compensation if, within two years of the injury or of when you knew or ought to have known its nature and relation to your work, nothing beyond medical or burial expenses is paid and no application is filed, unless your employer knew or should have known of the injury in that time.

The insurer set up an exam with its own doctor. Does it have to pay for my trip from Stevens Point?

Yes. An insurer that wants you examined must ask in writing and advance all necessary expenses, including transportation, before the exam (Wis. Stat. § 102.13(1)(a) and (b)). Its written request must give the proposed date, time and place, identify the examiner and the examiner’s field, explain how to reschedule, and set out your rights: your own practitioner, one observer and, if you have difficulty speaking or understanding English, your own translator may attend, and you get copies of the exam reports as soon as the insurer receives them. Refusing or obstructing a properly requested exam suspends your right to start or continue proceedings for compensation, and refusing after DWD or a judge directs you to attend, or obstructing it, costs the weekly benefits for that period (Wis. Stat. § 102.13(1)(c)).

Can I choose my own doctor for a work injury in Wisconsin?

Yes. Once your employer knows of the injury and its connection to your job, you may choose a treating practitioner licensed and practicing in Wisconsin, whether a physician, chiropractor, psychologist, dentist, physician assistant, advanced practice registered nurse or podiatrist, and you have the right to a second choice on notice to your employer or its insurer (Wis. Stat. § 102.42(2)(a)). Any further change requires mutual agreement, and so does a practitioner licensed outside Wisconsin unless a Wisconsin-licensed practitioner refers you. A referral from your chosen practitioner, or care from partners in the same clinic, counts as the same choice.

How are lawyer fees handled in a Wisconsin workers’ comp case?

The fee is a percentage of what the lawyer obtains for you, and DWD must approve it. Under Wis. Stat. § 102.26(2) the fee is generally capped at 20 percent of the disputed amount, and at 10 percent, no more than $250, when liability is admitted, the amount is not in dispute and no hearing is needed. DWD’s instructions for the hearing application add that if your attorney recovers nothing for you, you owe no fee for the attorney’s time, although actual costs such as charges for medical reports may still be billed, and that whatever the outcome, you are not required to pay the attorney fees of the employer or its insurer.

What Workers’ Compensation Pays, and When

Your date of injury sets the weekly maximums (DWD rate chart WKC-9572-P):

• Temporary total disability: two-thirds of your average weekly wage when the compensable injury keeps you from earning wages during the healing period, up to $1,326 a week for a 2025 injury and $1,375 for a 2026 injury.
• Permanent partial disability: for a lasting impairment, a weekly maximum of $446 for injuries dated January 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026, $454 for April 1 to December 31, 2026, and $462 for injuries on or after January 1, 2027 (2025 Wisconsin Act 145).
• Medical treatment: reasonable and necessary treatment for a compensable work injury.
• Death benefits: for the dependents of a worker who dies from a work injury.

Wage checks begin after a three-day waiting period that does not count Sundays unless you work them; those days are paid too if you miss work beyond the seventh calendar day or sustain a permanent disability (Wis. Stat. § 102.43). In most cases, DWD says, the first payment comes within 14 days of your last day worked (DWD publication WKC-18-P).

Deadlines:

• Notice: within 30 days after the injury or after you knew or ought to have known the nature of the disability and its relation to your work; late notice does not bar the claim if the employer was not misled (Wis. Stat. § 102.12).
• Most traumatic injuries on or after March 2, 2016: six years from the injury or from the last payment of compensation other than medical or burial expenses, whichever is later. The § 102.12 two-year bar sits beside that period: if nothing beyond medical or burial expenses has been paid and no application is filed within two years of the injury, or of when you knew or ought to have known its nature and relation to your work, compensation is barred unless your employer knew or should have known of the injury within those two years.
• Occupational disease and the serious injuries listed in Wis. Stat. § 102.17(4)(b), such as a permanent brain injury, any loss of vision or a traumatic injury causing the need for a knee, hip or shoulder replacement: no statute of limitations, though the 30-day notice rule and the two-year bar still apply.

An insurer’s exam request must be in writing, with necessary expenses, including transportation, advanced; your own practitioner, one observer and, if English is hard for you, your own translator may attend (Wis. Stat. § 102.13(1)(a) and (b)). DWD approves attorney fees, which are generally capped at 20 percent of the disputed amount (Wis. Stat. § 102.26(2)).

Our guides go deeper on filing a claim, step by step, what to do after a denial, how attorney fees are set and claims involving a serious injury.

Who Handles Your Stevens Point Claim

Attorney Lisa Pierobon Mays has built her practice around injured Wisconsin workers and their workers’ compensation claims. Her background:

• Admitted to the Wisconsin bar in 1995
• J.D., cum laude, Thomas M. Cooley Law School, 1995
• More than 25 years representing injured workers
• Board of Directors, Wisconsin Association of Worker’s Compensation Attorneys, District 7, 2001 to 2025

Read more about Attorney Lisa Pierobon Mays and the firm’s Wisconsin workers’ compensation practice.

From its office in Middleton, Mays Law Office represents injured workers across Wisconsin, Stevens Point and the rest of Portage County among them. To get started, call 608-305-4518 or send the contact form. The office takes down your details, and your first conversation is a free consultation by phone with Attorney Mays, who returns your call. Se habla español.

Workers’ Comp Help Near Stevens Point

Injured workers in neighboring central Wisconsin cities can find a page for their own community:

• Wisconsin Rapids workers’ comp help
• workers’ compensation claims in Wausau
• workers’ compensation claims in Marshfield
• injured workers in Wautoma

Two of our guides go further on topics this page only touches on:

• how to file a workers’ compensation claim in Wisconsin
• serious and permanent work injuries