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Off The Record – Workers’ Comp – Average Weekly Wage

Video Transcript

Hi, my name is Craig Rosasco. I’m a senior partner at the law firm of Turley Redmond & Rosasco. Today we’re gonna be discussing what’s called Average Weekly Wage and what financial benefits are available to injured workers under the workers compensation system. As I mentioned earlier, the New York State Workers Compensation Board uses what’s called Your Average Weekly Wage, and how do they calculate that? They’ll take your date of accident and they’ll backtrack 52 weeks. They’ll take those 52 weeks of earnings, and they’ll average them. That is what is known as your Average Weekly Wage.

Once that’s determined, we then take two-thirds of that number, and that’s what’s called your total compensation rate. Total compensation rate is reflective upon the average weekly wage. Once we have those two numbers calculated, it’s very simple. But getting there is the hard part. And this may be why you need an attorney because sometimes people don’t work a full 52 weeks prior to the accident. The weeks that they do work, though earnings fluctuate significantly, and then we have to go to what’s called An Average Daily Wage. But ultimately, there are a lot of calculations involved. For example, let’s take an average weekly wage of $1200 a week. Pretty simple. You take two-thirds of that. We generate an $800 weekly payment.

Similarly, a $900 average weekly wage, two-thirds are gonna be $600. That’s what’s called your Total Compensation Rate. Now you only get the total compensation rate if and when your medical doctor or your provider says that you are totally disabled. At some point, I promise you, the insurance company will attempt to reduce your benefit from a total benefit down to a partial benefit either based upon their IME consultant’s opinion on disability and/or your own doctor reducing your level of impairment because you’ll keep in mind, your money does reduce with the medical impairment provided by your doctor.

Once something like that happens, as you get further into your case, there’s the presumption that you get better with time and the insurance company will reduce your payments. It’s at that time that it’s most important to consult an attorney like myself. If you should need help in the future, feel free to reach out to me in the office. Certainly, my direct dial is always best 516-308-2013. Thank you. I look forward to speaking to you soon.

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