Part-time workers receive only a part-time wage, and because part-time workers often do not enjoy the same benefits that full-time workers do, part-time workers often wonder if workers’ compensation insurance applies to them, and if so, how a claim payout would work.
Part-Time Workers Can Be Eligible For Workers’ Compensation
In Texas, when a private employer opts to provide workers with workers’ compensation insurance coverage, this coverage extends to part-time workers as well as full-time workers and seasonal workers. A part-time employee is one who works less than a full-time work week for their employer (for some employers, a full-time work week is 35 hours a week, for others it is 40 hours a week). Part-time workers are eligible for the same types of income benefits as full-time workers.
Calculations For Benefit Amounts For Part-Time Workers
When determining the amount of workers’ compensation benefits an injured part-time worker is eligible for, the formula is similar to calculating benefits for an injured full-time worker. The average weekly wage is determined by taking the last 13 consecutive weeks’ pay preceding the injury, adding those weekly pay amounts together, and then dividing the sum by 13.
If the worker did not hold the same position during the 13 weeks preceding the injury, or the worker’s average pay cannot be determined, the average weekly wage for the injured employee can be determined by looking to what similarly situated employees would have been paid over the thirteen week period preceding the injury. When no comparable similarly situated employee exists to make the average weekly wage benefit determination against, the average weekly wage can be determined by using the usual wage for a similarly situated employee in the vicinity, not necessarily at the same company as the injured worker.
For certain types of workers’ compensation benefits for injured part-time workers, the calculations are a little different. For determining impairment income benefits, supplemental income benefits, lifetime income benefits, and death benefits based on the wages of an injured part-time worker, the average weekly wage is determined by either method as discussed above (as appropriate), and then the amount is adjusted to the weekly wage level the employee would have attained by working a full-time work week at the same rate of pay.
How Long Do I Have To Be Employed To Qualify For Workers’ Compensation?
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