New York Attorney Bill Turley Explains Part-time Workers’ Compensation Benefits

Video Transcript

What type of benefits are you entitled to if you get injured while you’re working at a part-time job? Hi, I’m Bill Turley. I’m a partner at the law firm of Turley, Redmond and Rosasco. The answer is, you can take into account all of your employment and determine your workers’ compensation benefit. You know, your workers’ compensation benefits are based upon your average weekly wage. But what happens if you get hurt on a part-time job, a job that is really kind of secondary and doesn’t pay as much as your primary job? Well, what the law says is that you can take into account all of those earnings in determining your average weekly salary, and that in turn increases your benefit rate. What do you really need to satisfy these requirements? You really need to show that the employments are covered employment under the workers’ compensation law. In other words, is this a job that would normally be covered under the workers’ compensation system?

Now, there are some exceptions here. Let’s say that you’re involved in some kind of federal employment as your part-time job. Let’s say you’re a postal worker or you work for the IRS. Those earnings unfortunately cannot be included because they’re covered under a separate workers’ compensation system. You can, however, include self-employment earnings as long as you cover yourself under a workers’ compensation policy. Off the books earnings and cash earnings can’t be included because you can’t document them. But as long as you can document your earnings with pay stubs and W-2s you’re good to go. Why am I giving you this information? Because you’ve got questions and I’ve got the answers. I want you to call me at 1-877-NY-DBLAW. I’m Bill Turley and thanks for watching.