Mississippi: Increased Wages After Injury Does Not Always Disqualify Worker from Wage Loss Benefits

That an injured worker was receiving wages that exceeded his pre-injury earnings did not, in and of itself, mean he was not entitled to an award of permanent partial benefits for wage loss, held a Mississippi appellate court. The appellate court acknowledged such evidence effectively created a presumption that there had been no wage loss, but the court also agreed that there was sufficient evidence to rebut that presumption. The Court noted that the Commission had found the presumption rebutted on the basis that the worker did not perform his job in the same manner as before his injury. For example, the worker testified that the employer provided the worker with the assistance of a second brake-press operator when lifting heavy objects. There was addition evidence that the worker's increase in hourly wages was a result of an overall increase in general wage levels since the injury. Finally, the court observed that the worker presented vocational evidence to demonstrate that he would have a reduction in wages due to his injury in the open labor market if he were to become unemployed.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the co-Editor-in-Chief and Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law(LexisNexis).

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See Chambers v. Howard Indus., 2021 Miss. App. LEXIS 13 (Jan. 12, 2021)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 81.01.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see

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