Tag Archives: permanent disability

What’s your workers’ compensation case worth? What’s your average weekly wage?

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AWW: One variable in determining what a case is worth

In Nebraska, you are entitled to 2/3 of your average weekly wages when you are off work for a workers’ compensation injury. You may also be entitled to permanent disability based on 2/3 of your average weekly wage as well. But what does “average weekly wage” mean and how do you calculate it?  

How to calculate Average Weekly Wage (AWW)

Generally speaking, the AWW of a work comp claim in Nebraska are calculated based on a workers’ wages in the 26 weeks before the date of the accident. If the injured worker has not been there for 26 weeks, often the AWW would be based on the number of weeks the worker has actually worked. In rare instances (e.g. if someone is injured within the first few days on the job), the AWW might actually be calculated by using other employees in a similar job as the injured worker.

Tips are normally included in the AWW. Commissions or bonuses are also likely included if they were fixed at the time of hiring. Alternatively, other benefits, such as health insurance or room and board are usually not included in the AWW calculation, with the exception that the room and board potentially could be included if the money value of the room and board was fixed at the time of the hiring.

Abnormally low weeks from the 26-week-period may also be excluded in the calculation, as not to artificially drive down the true average earnings. Overtime hours are also included in the AWW, but it may only be calculated as “straight time” and not at premium pay. For example, someone making $20 per hour who works 45 hours per week, would only be entitled to 45 x 20 = $900 AWW (and not time-and-a-half for the 5 extra hours of overtime). The workers’ compensation rate in this example (for temporary and permanent benefits) would then be $900 x 2/3 = $600.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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Caught in the TTD/PPD squeeze

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Consider these common scenarios after a serious work injury.

An injured employee is done recovering from a surgery but can’t go back to work until they complete a Functional Capacity Evaluation.

An injured employee is done recovering from a spinal fusion surgery and is unable to go back to their old job. Even if on the odd chance they could go back to their old job, they have been off work so long that any job protections available under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) have long passed.

In both cases an injured worker is likely 1) not getting temporary total disability (TTD) 2) Is not earning wages and 3) Has not started receiving any permanent partial disability (PPD) or permanent total disability (PTD).

Some call it “the gap”, some call it “the squeeze”, but whatever you call it, it’s a painful situation to be in to not have any money coming in after a recovery from an injury.

Workers’ compensation laws in Nebraska are supposed to be interpreted in favor of the employee to effectuate the beneficent purpose of relieving employees of the economic effects of a work injury. How can employers/insurers squeeze injured employees like this?

One answer is that case law may allow this. I am going to cut and paste in the relevant language case law into this blog post in italics. I am going to bold face the language insurers rely on to squeeze injured employees.

Temporary disability ordinarily continues until the claimant is restored so far as the permanent character of his or her injuries will permit. Compensation for temporary disability ceases as soon as the extent of the claimant’s permanent disability is ascertained. In other words, temporary disability should be paid only to the time when it becomes apparent that the employee will get no better or no worse because of the injury.

The term “maximum medical improvement,” or MMI, has been used to describe the point of transition from temporary to permanent disability.  Once a worker has reached MMI from a disabling injury and the worker’s permanent disability and concomitant decreased earning capacity have been determined, an award of permanent disability is appropriate.

The argument underlying the squeeze is that TTD ends when a doctor states you have plateaued medically, but you can’t get permanent disability until your disability has been ascertained. This could mean waiting for a permanent impairment rating or it could mean waiting for an FCE, having a doctor endorse the results and then having a vocational counselor determine disability. As Roger Moore at our office pointed out in 2015, the latter process can last months.

I think allowing insurers to exploit the gap between TTD and PPD is an incorrect reading of the law. As I pointed out earlier, it doesn’t effectuate the beneficent purpose of the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act. If TTD ends when disability is ascertained, doesn’t disability actually need to be ascertained through assigning either permanent impairment or permanent restrictions and/or a determination of loss of earning power before TTD payments end? Finally, if MMI signals the transition between temporary and permanent disability benefits, isn’t MMI merely the beginning of the end of temporary benefits rather than the end of temporary benefits? Doesn’t the term “transition” account for some time period when disability is being ascertained?

The temporary/permanent squeeze is an issue of great interest to me. While I think the squeeze is a misreading of the law, I am not certain a trial judge or appellate court would see things my way. The issue may have to be resolved in the Legislature, but the issue is one that should be addressed in litigation. I am one attorney who is willing to litigate the issue on behalf of an injured employee.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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Irregular shifts complicate workers’ compensation claims

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Irregular work hours, driven increasingly by automated scheduling, have lead San Francisco and Seattle to pass municipal ordinances to regulate the practice because irregular schedules make child care, transportation and working multiple jobs increasingly difficult for low wage workers.

Irregular hours also increase the risk of work injury and they can complicate the claims of injured workers.  Here are a few ways irregular working hours can impact a workers’ compensation claim:

Benefit rates

Workers compensation disability benefits are paid based on a workers’ average weekly earnings or their average weekly wage – AWW for short. But when you work 40 hours one week and eight the next, what’s your average work week? Mathematically, in this scenario the average week would be 24 weeks. An insurance company would likely use a simple average.

But under Nebraska law a court is supposed to exclude abnormally low weeks from the calculation of average weekly wage. In other words if the case is pushed into court, a Judge will exclude abnormally low weeks which would lead to a higher benefit rate.

Many employers also pay shift differential where night and weekend shifts get a higher hourly wage. Effective hourly wages can vary from week to week for employees who work irregular shifts that include night and weekend shifts.

Nebraska excludes overtime premium in general from AWW, but shift differential still counts. Sometimes insurance companies will exclude shift differentials from their calculations of average weekly wage. This is particularly true when insurers are calculating permanent disability benefits.

It is also common for workers who work irregular shifts to work less than 40 hours a week. For the sake of permanent disability benefits, Nebraska assumes a minimum of a 40-hour work week . Insurers will often not follow this rule. Irregular shift workers are not the only workers who are subjected to this practice, but when you combine exclusions of shift differential along with not using a 40-hour week, irregular shift workers can get substantially underpaid when it comes to workers compensation.

Our firm, like most other firms, represents injured workers on a contingent fee basis. The problem with that arrangement is that while an under payment of benefits may be a meaningful amount of money to an injured worker, it may not be enough for an attorney to justify taking on an underpayment claim on a contingent fee basis. Most state and federal wage and hour laws allow for fee awards that can be many times the unpaid wages. The reason for attorney fee awards in this case is the important public purpose of these laws.

Workers compensation has the same general purpose of as wage and hour laws, but in Nebraska it is difficult to get attorney fees in a disputed workers compensation case because an award of penalties requries a lack of a reasonable controversy. Conventional wisdom is that employees must show a lack of reasonable controversy to win attorney fees. However, some case law seems to distinguish the standard for winning a penalty versus winning an attorney fee.

Medical appointments

Irregular shifts also make it difficult to schedule medical appointments. This is particularly true of specialists who would be treating a more serious work injury. Missing appointments can be a red flag for judges, doctors and insurers if not explained. A good attorney can help an injured worker explain how an irregular work schedule prevented them or interfere with the. from attending medical appointments.

 

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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