Mays Law Office · Updated October 2026

Wisconsin workers’ comp pays a Wausau worker’s reasonable and necessary medical care for a compensable work injury, with no waiting period. Wage benefits start on the fourth calendar day off work, excluding Sundays unless you normally work them. First, get treatment and tell your employer within 30 days; late notice is excused if your employer was not misled.

Payment for treatment can be contested when the insurer disputes liability or causation. The first three days off work are paid if the disability lasts beyond seven calendar days or the injury causes permanent disability (DWD’s guide, WKC-18-P).

Wausau sits in a county where manufacturing holds a far larger share of private-sector jobs than it does statewide, and it is one of seven cities where the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) holds workers’ compensation hearings. If your claim was denied, your checks stopped or came up short, or the insurer set up an exam with a doctor it chose, call 608-305-4518 for a free consultation.

Work and Injuries in Marathon County

Manufacturing leads Marathon County’s private economy by a wide margin. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2025 county employment figures, manufacturing employers averaged 18,025 jobs there, 28.8 percent of the county’s 62,577 private-sector jobs, or nearly three in ten, compared with 17.9 percent of private-sector jobs statewide in the same data. Among the other sectors the bureau publishes for the county, health care and social assistance came second with 10,453 jobs (16.7 percent), followed by retail trade, accommodation and food services, and finance and insurance. Together those five held about seven of every ten private-sector jobs in a county that counted 69,778 jobs in all, public employers included.

Marathon County at a glance

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, Marathon County annual averages for 2025; shares are of the county’s 62,577 private-sector jobs. BLS withheld 2025 county figures for four sectors, including agriculture and transportation and warehousing, to protect employer confidentiality, so only published sectors are ranked.

Those numbers count jobs at workplaces in the county by industry. The Census Bureau’s 2020–2024 American Community Survey instead estimates what the county’s 72,144 employed residents do for a living, wherever they work: 11.7 percent hold health care practitioner, technical or support jobs, compared with 10.1 percent across Wisconsin; 10.2 percent work in production (Wisconsin: 9.2 percent); and 8.7 percent in transportation and material moving (8.1 percent statewide). Construction and extraction accounts for 4.5 percent, the same as the state, and farming, fishing and forestry for 1.1 percent, against 0.8 percent statewide.

Within the city of Wausau, where the same survey estimates 19,920 employed residents, health care occupations reach 13.5 percent, more than one working resident in eight. Production holds 9.2 percent, matching the statewide share, and transportation and material moving 7.1 percent.

These lines of work produce different claims. Production floors bring hands caught in machinery, cuts, crush injuries, burns, lifting strains, repetitive-motion conditions in the hands, wrists and shoulders, and hearing worn down by years of loud equipment. Staff in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and home care strain backs and shoulders lifting and repositioning patients, and they face falls, needlesticks and exposure to illness. Retail and restaurant jobs bring falls on slick floors, cuts, burns and stocking injuries, and even desk work can lead to repetitive-strain claims.

Fault is usually not the question: DWD’s guide for injured workers says benefits generally must be paid even if the injury was your fault, with two exceptions (Wis. Stat. § 102.58): a failure to use an enforced safety device or obey an enforced safety rule that caused the injury cuts compensation and death benefits 15 percent, up to $15,000, and a causal violation of the employer’s drug or alcohol policy bars them, though the employer remains liable for medical treatment. The key questions are whether the injury arose out of your employment and happened while you were performing services growing out of and incidental to it (Wis. Stat. § 102.03(1)). Conditions that build up slowly can be covered too. DWD’s guide gives occupational hearing loss and carpal tunnel syndrome as examples of occupational disease, and for a disease the date of injury is the date of disability or, if disability follows the end of all contributing employment, the last day worked for the last employer whose employment caused it (Wis. Stat. § 102.01(2)(g)2), which sets the maximums that apply.

For union members, the Wisconsin AFL-CIO lists the Marathon County Labor Council for this area, and DWD notes that seniority provisions in a collective bargaining agreement can affect whether suitable work is available when an injured worker is ready to return.

If a Wausau Claim Is Disputed

A Wausau dispute is decided by a state agency, not in the county courthouse; a court reviews it only if a party takes the Labor and Industry Review Commission’s order to circuit court, filing and serving a summons and complaint within 30 days of that order (Wis. Stat. § 102.23(1)(a)). Under 2025 Wisconsin Act 33, workers’ compensation hearings and the administrative law judges who conduct them moved on January 1, 2026 from the Department of Administration’s Division of Hearings and Appeals to DWD’s Worker’s Compensation Division, returning adjudication to the agency that had handled it until 2015.

An insurer that denies a claim must say so in writing, give the specific reason and tell you about your right to a hearing. A worker without a lawyer then starts in DWD’s informal process: the Division’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Unit reviews the disputed issues and the medical support and, if it sees a way to resolve the dispute without a hearing, contacts you and the insurer. If that fails, you can apply for a hearing before an administrative law judge. DWD needs medical support, usually a treating practitioner’s report, before it schedules one, and for certain workers without a lawyer a judge holds a pre-hearing conference to narrow the issues.

Settlement stays possible throughout. Under Wis. Admin. Code § DWD 80.16, any party may ask DWD for a mediation conference, conducted by an administrative law judge, to seek a resolution without a formal hearing; DWD may schedule it once all other parties agree in writing, and what is said there is confidential, with limited exceptions. Many hearing requests settle before a formal hearing, and a compromise settlement needs the Division’s approval.

If the case goes to a hearing, DWD sets the place. DWD states that “hearings are generally held near the municipality of the applicant’s residence,” and its seven locations are Madison, Milwaukee, Appleton, Eau Claire, Green Bay, La Crosse and Wausau; DWD holds hearings in Wausau itself. The written notice, served or mailed to each party at least 10 days ahead, names the actual date, time and location (Wis. Stat. § 102.17(1)(a)). The Division schedules hearings only by written letter, so a phone call, text or email claiming to schedule one should be verified with the Division before you respond.

Two timing rules apply once a case is on file. Filing an application for hearing keeps the § 102.17(4) time limit from running out while the case is open, but adds no time after it ends: the limit expires at the final disposition or on its original date, whichever is later, and starts running again if the application is dismissed without prejudice (Wis. Stat. § 102.17(4)(a)1). After the judge decides, DWD or the Labor and Industry Review Commission must receive a petition for review within 21 days after DWD mails the decision (Wis. Stat. § 102.18(3)).

Wausau Workers’ Comp Questions

Are workers’ comp hearings held in Wausau?

Yes. Wausau is one of seven places where DWD’s Worker’s Compensation Division holds hearings, along with Madison, Milwaukee, Appleton, Eau Claire, Green Bay and La Crosse. DWD states that hearings are generally held near the municipality where the injured worker lives, and the written notice, sent at least 10 days ahead, names the actual date, time and location. Many disputes end in a settlement before a hearing date arrives. If a call, text or email claims to set your hearing, contact the Division first: it schedules hearings only by written letter.

English is not my first language. Can I bring my own translator to the insurance company’s medical exam?

Yes. If you have difficulty speaking or understanding English, Wisconsin law entitles you to have a translator you provide present at an exam your employer or its insurer requests, and the written request for the exam must tell you so. It must also give the proposed date, time and place, identify the examining practitioner, explain how to change the appointment, and tell you that you may bring your own practitioner and one observer and will get copies of the reports. Your necessary expenses, including travel, must be provided before the exam (Wis. Stat. § 102.13(1)(b)). DWD publishes its guide for injured workers in Spanish and Hmong.

I was hurt by a machine at a Marathon County plant. Can I sue my employer?

Usually not. For a covered injury, workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy against your employer, its insurer and your co-workers, apart from narrow exceptions (Wis. Stat. § 102.03(2)), and it does not pay for pain and suffering. If another company caused the injury, for example by building or servicing a defective machine, you may also have a claim against it (Wis. Stat. § 102.29), with exceptions for temporary-help, leased-employee and loaned-employee arrangements (§ 102.29(6)–(7)); the statute sets how any recovery is divided, including repayment to the insurer, and a settlement needs court or DWD approval. DWD’s guide adds that if an employer’s failure to follow a state or federal safety provision caused the injury, the employer must pay 15 percent more compensation, up to $15,000.

Do I have to see a doctor my employer picks?

Not for treatment: you choose your treating practitioner, except that in an emergency your employer may arrange care and offer your choice once it passes, and a practitioner not licensed in Wisconsin needs mutual agreement unless a Wisconsin-licensed practitioner refers you. Once your employer knows of the injury and its connection to your work, it must offer you a choice of practitioner licensed and practicing in Wisconsin (a physician, chiropractor, psychologist, dentist, physician assistant, advanced practice registered nurse or podiatrist), plus a second choice on notice to your employer or its insurer (Wis. Stat. § 102.42(2)(a)). An exam is different: you generally must attend a reasonable examination your employer or its insurer requests in writing and pays for, with your necessary expenses, including travel, paid in advance (§ 102.13(1)(a)–(b)). Refusing a proper written request suspends your right to begin or maintain a compensation proceeding while you refuse, and a refusal after DWD or a judge orders the exam, or any obstruction, forfeits weekly benefits for that period (§ 102.13(1)(c)).

How soon should my first workers’ comp check arrive?

DWD’s guide says the insurer usually makes the first payment within 14 days of your last day worked. If it is still investigating, it must tell you within 14 days after it receives notice of the injury, and if it denies the claim, it must tell you within 7 days of that decision and advise you of your right to a hearing. The first three days off work are a waiting period, counted without Sundays unless you normally work Sundays. Those three days become payable if the disability continues after seven calendar days or the injury causes permanent disability (DWD’s guide, WKC-18-P).

Does my employer have to take me back after a work injury?

Not always. DWD explains that the law does not promise a job after an injury, and an employer does not have to hold a position open or create one. But if suitable work within your physical and mental limitations is available and your employer refuses without reasonable cause to rehire you, you may be owed up to one year of lost wages, and you can request a hearing on that claim (Wis. Stat. § 102.35(3)). DWD also advises that returning to work as your doctor directs, even in a lighter job, puts you in a stronger position for further benefits than refusing an offer of work.

What Workers’ Compensation Pays, and When

Benefits, with weekly maximums by date of injury (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 2025 injuries or $1,375 for 2026 injuries.
• Permanent partial disability: for lasting impairment, up to $446 a week for injuries from January 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026, $454 from April 1 through December 31, 2026, and $462 for injuries on or after January 1, 2027, the last two set by 2025 Wisconsin Act 145.
• Medical care: reasonable and necessary treatment from the first day; DWD’s guide says a provider notified that the insurer disputes its fee or treatment may not ask you to pay that bill.

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 your employer was not misled (Wis. Stat. § 102.12).
• The two-year bar: if nothing beyond medical or burial expenses has been paid and no application is filed with DWD within two years after the injury, or after 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 (§ 102.12).
• Six years: for most traumatic injuries on or after March 2, 2016, counted from the injury or the last payment of compensation other than medical or burial expenses, whichever is later (§ 102.17(4)), with the two-year bar beside it.
• No statute of limitations: occupational disease, and traumatic injuries causing the loss or total impairment of a hand or foot or any part of the arm or leg above it, any loss of vision, a permanent brain injury, or the need for an artificial spinal disc or a knee, hip, shoulder or reverse shoulder replacement (Wis. Stat. § 102.17(4)(b)); the 30-day notice rule and the two-year bar still apply.

For the insurer’s exam, your necessary expenses, including travel, must be provided in advance; you may bring your own practitioner, one observer and, if English is hard for you, a translator (Wis. Stat. § 102.13(1)(b)). DWD’s guide says a lawyer in a disputed case may be paid up to 20 percent of the compensation obtained for you, plus costs; if liability is admitted, nothing is disputed and no hearing or appeal is needed, the cap is 10 percent, up to $250 (Wis. Stat. § 102.26(2)). DWD approves fees.

More in our guides: how a claim is filed, answering a denial, what a lawyer may charge and serious-injury claims.

Who Handles Your Wausau Claim

Attorney Lisa Pierobon Mays concentrates her practice on workers’ compensation for injured Wisconsin workers and has more than 25 years of experience representing them. Admitted to the Wisconsin bar in 1995, the same year she earned her J.D. cum laude from Thomas M. Cooley Law School, she served on the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Association of Worker’s Compensation Attorneys for District 7 from 2001 to 2025. She communicates directly with her clients. Read more about Attorney Lisa Pierobon Mays and the firm’s Wisconsin workers’ compensation practice.

Mays Law Office represents injured workers across Wisconsin from its office in Middleton, and that includes Wausau and the rest of Marathon County. To get started, call 608-305-4518 or reach the office through the contact page; the office takes your information, and Attorney Mays calls you back for a free consultation. Se habla español.

Workers’ Comp Help Near Wausau

Other central Wisconsin cities have pages of their own:

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

Two guides go further on language help after a work injury and on what to do when a claim is denied:

• hurt at work and don’t speak English
• what to do if your workers’ comp claim is denied