Wisconsin has recently made significant changes to workers’ compensation, among those changes is a modification to how temporary total disability works for part-time workers. If you want to see how those changes might affect you, then Tabak Law is here to help. Keep reading to learn more.
What is Temporary Total Disability in Wisconsin?
Temporary total disability or TTD is a type of disability available in Wisconsin for workers who are hurt on the job and are in the process of healing and suffering wage loss. If wage loss is only partial, then workers would receive TPD or temporary partial disability payments.
Read More: Wisconsin 2023 Permanent Partial Disability Benefit Changes
What is the Two Part Comparison?
To determine your TTD rate, the following comparison is used. Whichever of the numbers computed below is higher will be used and your rate will be set at 66.67% of that. However, this only applies to full-time workers.
Hourly rate at the time of injury, including a shift differential if in effect when injured, multiplied by the number of regularly scheduled hours of work
—OR—
Taxable gross earnings, excluding tips, paid by the insured in the 52 weeks prior to the week of the injury, divided by the number of weeks worked (or in a pay status, as in paid vacation and sick leave) in that same period.
How Does the Two-Part Comparison Work for Part-Time Workers?
In the past, part-time workers would still use the above comparison as if they would just have their wages expanded to a 40-hour work week. A part-time worker is someone who works or is regularly scheduled to work 35 hours or less per week.
Workers’ Compensation Eligibility When Working From Home
Changes to How Part-Time Worker AWW is Handled
Two things have to be considered before it can be determined how the two-part comparison is used to calculate your TTD for part-time workers. Firstly, we have to determine, beyond the 35-hour test, if you are a part-time employee. Secondly, we have to consider if you are considered to be self-restricted.
Determining if You are a Part-Time Worker in Wisconsin
To be a part-time worker, there must be at least one other part-time employee doing the same job with a similar schedule as yours, and a minimum of 10% of all employees at the place of the injury must also be part-time doing the same work. Additionally, the employee must work a regular schedule with hours per week not varying more than 5 for the 13 weeks prior to the injury.
If this is true, then part 1 of the comparison would use your regularly scheduled hours with a minimum of 24 hours per week. If the above is not true, then hours per week would be expanded to 40 for part 1 of the comparison.
Read More: Can a First Responder Get Workers’ Comp Benefits for COVID?
Determining if You are a Self-Restricted Part-Time Worker
If an injured employee is considered to be self-restricted, then the wage would be based on their actual earning and hours would not be expanded. However, the payment would be set at 100% as opposed to 66.7%.
To be considered a self-restricted worker, the employee must confirm that they restrict themselves to part-time, they must not have a second job or also be self-employed at the time of the injury, and the restricted TTD must not be greater than the non-restricted TTD amount.
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