Can an employee collect partial SDI benefits if they are able to come back to work only part-time?

An employee who is disabled and collecting SDI benefits may be permitted by their health care provider to return to work part-time. In that case, the employee still may be able to receive full or partial SDI benefits depending on the amount of their wage loss.

For example, a full-time employee who normally earned $1,000 per week, and who was collecting $600 a week in SDI is able to return to work 18 hours per week and therefore earn $450. The Employment Development Department (EDD) will calculate a wage loss of $550 per week ($1,000 minus $450), and therefore reduce the SDI benefit from $600 to $550.

Read more about State Disability Insurance Benefit Payments in the HR Library.