What Was Your True Average Weekly Wage Before the Accident?
The keystone in workers’ compensation benefits is the average weekly wage. This figure will be used to calculate the ongoing compensation rate of your workers’ comp payments. There are several ways of determining the average weekly wage. The most prevalent method takes the average gross weekly wage of an injured worker for 52 weeks preceding the date of the injury. However, if there were lengthy absences of more than seven days — not counting paid vacations — during the year preceding the injury, or if the injured worker has not worked with the same employer for that 52-week period, a different approach may be utilized to arrive at this important number.
Know Your Rights When Claiming Workers’ Compensation Benefits
Your surest way to confirm and verify that your average weekly wage is being calculated to your best advantage is to have a knowledgeable, attentive workers’ compensation lawyer monitoring your claim. A Charlotte workers’ compensation lawyer from Brown Moore & Associates, PLLC, will gladly offer you a free initial consultation to discuss this and other essential aspects of your workers’ compensation claim in North Carolina. We often find that insurers tend to calculate employees’ average weekly wage lower than it should be if the most advantageous method of calculation were applied.
Beware Allowing Your Case to Be Undervalued by Your Employer or the Insurer
For example, if some of the weeks you worked shortly before your injury were paid at a lower “training” rate than your regular salary after training, our attorneys, if we represent you, will argue that your employer should base the average weekly wage calculation only on the basis of weeks paid out at the full salary rate.
Even when employers and employees agree on the method of calculation, our Charlotte workers’ compensation attorneys find that a significant percentage of the time, employers still miscalculate downward — not in the worker’s favor.
A workers’ compensation attorney on your side is a valuable and important ally and advocate for an injured worker. Your North Carolina workplace injury lawyer can help you understand your rights and take action to protect your right to compensation at the maximum available levels after an injury on the job.
If your doctors determine that you are permanently impaired, the “average weekly wage” calculation is especially important. Correct calculations as opposed to erroneous ones can make thousands of dollars of difference over time in the workers’ compensation benefits that you receive.
Contact a North Carolina Workers Compensation Rate Lawyer
Lawyers at Brown Moore & Associates, PLLC, pledge to give your case serious consideration at your initial free consultation. We do not want to offer to take your case unless we believe that our advocacy is very likely to add value to your case equal to or greater than our attorney’s fees. After a workplace injury causing serious or catastrophic injuries or after the accidental death of a family member on the job in North Carolina or South Carolina, call us toll-free at 800-948-0577 or contact us online.
