Less Than a Month on the Job? Consider Your "Rate of Hire."

Workers' Compensation

1/20/2012
Charles L. Powell
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Less Than a Month on the Job? Consider Your "Rate of Hire."

Temporary total disability benefits (weekly wage benefits) must be paid when a Vermont employee is injured on the job and cannot yet return to work. It’s sometimes referred to by the nickname “weekly wage benefits” and the amount is two-thirds of your gross pay. More specifically, two-thirds of your “average weekly wage” is to be paid each week that you are out of work and still expected to improve.

Average weekly wage is normally determined by looking at the past six (6) months of earnings history (26 weeks) and entering on a specific Vermont Department of Labor form (called a Form 25 Wage Statement). The workers’ compensation insurance company and the employer are responsible for filing the Form 25 Wage Statement, so that there is a record of how they calculated your “average weekly wage.” It’s supposed to be by a process of adding up the 26 weeks of earnings and then divided by the 26 weeks to equal an average weekly wage.

There are some details to the calculations in the event there are any weeks which the employee worked less than a half a week. There are other details, such as the inclusion of any housing allowance. Bonuses and tips are also to be included. If the employee worked for a second or third employer, the earnings from other employment, generally, are included in the calculation of the average weekly wage for the work injury, even though the injury occurred at the one employment.

But for employees who had only been on the job for a month or less, there is a risk that averaging just the one to three weeks would be unfairly low. If you have worked less than a month on the job, you can consider Rule 15:

Rule 15.0000 AVERAGE WEEKLY WAGE; CALCULATING TEMPORARY TOTAL AND PERMANENT PARTIAL COMPENSATION RATE

…

15.4240 If the claimant has been employed for fewer than 4 weeks at the time of his or her injury, such that by the reason of the shortness of the time during which he/she has been in the employment it is impracticable to compute his or her average weekly wage in accordance with subsections 15.4210 and 15.4220 above, then the gross wages of a comparable employee working in a similar capacity under like conditions for the twelve weeks prior to the injury shall be used instead. If wages of a comparable employee are not available, the claimant's agreement with the employer as to both expected hours per week and rate of pay shall be used to determine the average weekly wage.

In an actual case, an employee was hired at a good hourly rate and was hired to work 40 hours per week. In his first week, however, scaffolding collapsed on the job. He suffered a very serious injury including permanent partial disability from the job injury. The workers’ compensation insurer and employer chose to pay weekly wage benefits at a “minimum” rate, and the employee agreed, not realizing the existence of Vermont Department of Labor Rule 15.4240. The employee hired our firm. He was later successful in turning that around. He was successful in getting a higher weekly compensation check and retroactive payments, based on his rate of hire. Rule 15.4240 made a difference in payments of thousands of dollars which the employee should have received, and eventually did.

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Charles L. Powell represents injured workers throughout Vermont and is available to speak with injured workers in all Vermont counties and towns including:
Windsor County - Andover, Baltimore, Barnard, Bethel, Bridgewater, Cavendish, Chester, Chester Depot, Hartford, White River Junction, Wilder, Hartland, Ludlow, Ludlow Village, Norwich, Plymouth, Pomfret, Reading, Rochester, Royalton, Sharon, Springfield, Stockbridge, Weathersfield, Perkinsville, West Windsor, Weston, Windsor, Woodstock and Woodstock Village
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Orange County - Bradford, Braintree, Brookfield, Chelsea, Corinth, Fairlee, Newbury, Orange, Randolph, Strafford, Thetford, Topsham, Tunbridge, Vershire, Washington, West Fairlee and Williamstown
Washington County - Barre, Websterville, Berlin, Cabot, Cabot Village, Calais, Duxbury, East Montpelier, Fayston, Marshfield, Marshfield Village, Middlesex, Montpelier, Moretown, Northfield, Northfield Village, Plainfield, Roxbury, Waitsfield, Warren, Waterbury, Waterbury Village, Woodbury and Worcester
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Chittenden County - Bolton, Burlington, Charlotte, Colchester, Essex, Essex Junction, Hinesburg, Huntington, Jericho, Milton, Richmond, Shelburne, South Burlington, St. George, Underhill, Westford, Williston and Winooski.

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Thank you Charles , so much for helping me through the hardest time in my life . I had no fight in me and you did it for me while being patient, compassionate and looking out for me , for my benefit .
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I retained the legal services of Charles Powell to represent myself when it came to workman’s compensation and issues that I had to deal with during my recovery.

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