If the authorized doctor has written you out of work due to a work-related injury, you should get paid by your employer a weekly wage. How much you are paid depends on what you were making prior to your on-the-job accident. Your workers’ compensation rate is calculated by taking the average weekly pay for the four quarters prior to your accident, not including the quarter in which you were injured. This amount is your “average weekly wage.” Your average weekly wage is then multiplied by .6667 to come up with your “compensation rate.”
There is a maximum compensation rate which changes each year. The maximum compensation rate you can receive is determined on the date of your injury. This means that you cannot receive more each year if your treatment last for more than one year.
Maximum weekly compensation rates for South Carolina since 2010:
1/1/16 $784.03
1/1/15 $766.05
1/1/14 $752.16
1/1/13 $743.72
1/1/12 $725.47
1/1/11 $704.92
1/1/10 $689.71
What if I did not work for four quarters prior to my injury?
There are a few ways in which your compensation rate can be calculated if you did not work four quarters prior to your injury. First, your employer may take a “similar or like employee” to determine how much you were paid. For instance, if you were a cashier, your employer may take another cashier at your place of employment and determine their pay for the four quarters prior to your injury, not including the quarter in which you were injured. Your employer may also decide to use your actual earnings divided by how many weeks you have worked to determine your average weekly wage. In rare cases, there are other ways to determine the compensation rate, with the ultimate goal being what is “fair and just.”
What if I had second job at the time of my injury?
If you had a second job at the time of your on the job injury, those wages should be used to calculate your average weekly wage and compensation rate. The employer you were working for at the time of your on-the-job injury would need to use those additional wages in their calculations.
Each case is unique. If you have questions about how much you should be getting paid while out of work due to an on the job injury or any other questions about your legal rights, please contact Venus Poe today at 864-963-0310 or click here to fill out an online case evaluation form. We have offices in Greenville, South Carolina and Fountain Inn, South Carolina to better serve you anywhere in South Carolina. There is no obligation or charge for our initial consultation to see if we can help you.
The information you obtain in this article is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice.You should not read this article to propose specific action or address specific circumstances, but only to give you a sense of general principles of law. Application of these general principles to particular circumstances must be done by a lawyer who has spoken with you in confidence, learned all relevant information, and explored various options. Before acting on these general principles, you should hire a lawyer licensed to practice law in the jurisdiction in which you may have a case.