If you’re injured on the job and cannot work, you may be entitled to a weekly check from the workers’ compensation insurance carrier. There are many requirements for you to be eligible for workers’ compensation, and we will address them in future posts; however, in this post, we will look at the amount you may be entitled to.
O.C.G.A section 34-9-261 states while an individual is injured on the job and unable to work, they shall be paid benefits equaling, “two-thirds of the employee’s average weekly wage but not more than $525.00 per week nor less than $50.00 per week.” The question then becomes, “what is your average weekly wage?”
The simple way to determine an average weekly wage is to “look backwards.” By looking backwards, we calculate what your average weekly earning was for the quarter (13 weeks) before you were injured. If you paid via salary, this is easy. If you are paid hourly, this can be a bit difficult, because you don’t always work the same number of hours. In fact, you may not have worked every week for the past 13 weeks. We can assist you to ensure that you receive the proper amount of benefits each week as there are certain angles we can work with you on to potentially increase the amount you are receiving in workers’ compensation benefits.
