In Illinois Workers’ Compensation cases the amount of money you make at your job makes a difference.
Your settlement or award amount depends on your wage.
The reason is that the formula used is your wage times 60 percent times a certain number of weeks for the settlement. And 66 percent times your wage for your off work pay.
The law provides that your average weekly wage is based on the 52 weeks before your injury.
If you miss days or weeks because of illness or other reasons, then these partial weeks should not be used to count toward your average weekly wage.
If you work a second job and the employer where you were injured knows of the second job, then you can add the second job to boost your average weekly wage at the job where you were injured.
If you make more money after your injury date you cannot add this your weekly wage.
The other important reason to make sure that your wage is as high is possible is that if you can no longer work at your old job, then you may eligible for a wage differential. The higher the wage difference the better for you.
Questions about your Illinois Work Comp case? Feel free to contact Illinois Workers’ Compensation Attorney Dirk May at 309-827-4371.