When a Work Accident Affects Your Earning Capacity

 Posted on November 15, 2024 in Workers' Compensation

When a worker is left permanently and totally disabled after a workplace accident, workers’ compensation can often replace the worker's entire paycheck. However, a lot of workers who have sustained permanent and life-altering injuries are no longer able to do the job they had before but are still able to do some work. For example, a factory worker who lost an arm and cannot keep working on the assembly line might be able to find work as a crossing guard or a cashier. However, this job is likely to pay less. In these cases, workers’ compensation can often make up the difference between what you were able to earn before and what you can earn now. If you had to take a lower-paying job after a workplace injury, an experienced Naperville, IL workers’ compensation attorney might be able to help you gain compensation for your lost wages.

Compensation for Loss of Earning Capacity Examples 

A few examples of how compensation for lost earning capacity include: 

• Working fewer hours - Don is a construction worker. He lost a leg during a scaffolding collapse. He gets a prosthetic leg covered and can still do his old job. However, due to the strain of walking on a prosthesis, he can now only work 20 hours each week instead of 40. Workers’ compensation may pay Don for the 20 hours per week he can no longer work. 
• Accepting a lower-paid job in the same field - Carrie is an ICU nurse. She is badly assaulted by a patient. Due to her psychological trauma, she can no longer work in a hospital setting. Carrie takes a triage job answering calls from patients, which she can do from home. This job pays about two-thirds of what her ICU job did. Workers’ compensation may pay Carrie the difference between what she earned as an ICU nurse and what she can earn in her new work-from-home job. 
• Changing fields entirely - Devon is an accountant. A custodian mops the stairwell in his office building and does not place a wet floor sign, causing Devon to slip and fall down the stairs. Devon sustains a traumatic brain injury, and his intellect is affected. He cannot work as an accountant anymore but is able to find work with a landscaping company. Devon earns much less as a landscaper than he did as an accountant. Workers’ compensation may pay the difference. 

Each of these individuals should be bringing in the same amount they were before their accidents.

Contact a Naperville, IL Workers’ Compensation Lawyer 

Rathbun, Cservenyak & Kozol LLC is committed to helping make sure injured workers do not suffer financially. Our dedicated DuPage County, IL partial disability attorneys will do all we can to make sure you are not left in a position where you are earning less because of your workplace injury. Contact us at 815-730-1977 for a complimentary consultation.