How Workers’ Compensation Can Help with Wage Loss
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You might expect that, should a worker be injured while at work and require wage replacement, they would receive workers’ compensation. However, if you examine this subject closely, you’ll find that the procedure is often not as easy as it sounds. Indeed, in most cases of wage replacement for employees who have been injured while on the job, there are many obstacles that can only be overcome with special guidance.
Replace lost income
Workers’ compensation replaces lost wages due to injuries sustained at work. This can help replace lost income until you are able to return to work or retire permanently from your job. If your injuries are serious enough, this benefit may even continue after.
Workers’ compensation can help fill in the gap between what you earn now and what you were earning before getting hurt at work. This can help prevent financial hardship during recovery periods because the extra money will go toward paying bills instead of filling up gaps in coverage through other types of insurance policies like health insurance or life insurance policies that may not cover all of your needs during recovery periods for injuries sustained at work.
Get proper medical care and treatment
Workers’ compensation provides medical treatment as well as time off from work so that you can receive this treatment without having to worry about paying out-of-pocket expenses. In addition, if you are injured on the job in Texas- Spanish resources can be provided for you. Severe injuries that may require surgery, workers’ compensation may cover all or part of the cost of surgery as well as related expenses such as physical therapy after surgery.
Cover the cost of prescription drugs
Injured workers may need prescription drugs to treat their injuries and get better faster. Workers’ compensation helps cover these expenses so that injured workers do not have to worry about paying for them out of pocket while they recover from their injuries.
What is wage loss?
One of the biggest benefits of workers’ compensation is wage loss coverage. If you’re unable to work because of an injury or illness that occurred on the job, you’ll receive payments from your employer’s insurance company until you can return to work. The amount of money varies depending on where you live and how long you were out of work before returning to full health.
Your age
Typically, younger workers are more likely to suffer from permanent impairment than older workers and will be entitled to significant wage loss.
The type of job and how much time off work it requires
If you have a desk job and are able to work from home during your recovery, this may not affect your wage loss at all. However, if you cannot perform any type of work for an extended period, this could result in substantial lost wages.
Whether or not there is any permanency to the injury
If there is no permanency to the injury (aside from the time it takes to heal), then lost wages will only be incurred until you can return to full capacity. However, suppose there is some permanency involved, such as permanent loss of hearing or eyesight. In that case, wage loss will continue until the injured party can return to work – even if their job does not require physical labor.
Length of time loss of earnings begins
The longer it takes to recover from an injury, the longer you will be unable to work. If your injury or illness prevents you from working for a long time, your employer may have to continue paying you while you are out. But if the injury or illness only lasts a few days or weeks, you will probably not receive any compensation beyond what you would have earned during that time.
Projected growth in pay before an injury
Suppose the injured worker was projected to earn more after an injury. In that case, an experienced attorney will calculate how much money this would have been worth in future wages and present this information to a judge or jury as evidence of actual damages. This can be done by calculating what percentage increase in salary would have been earned over a projected period of time.
If you are injured at work, filing a workers’ compensation claim is the best way to recover economically. While wage loss is often one of the hardest losses to calculate and recover, you need a professional to explain some of what you can expect in terms of wage loss insurance coverage, as well as how you might claim lost wages.
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