Opinion ID: 2024227
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Compensation Rate For Customary Work Week.

Text: The deputy and industrial commissioner computed a compensation rate only for the tenth injury because they found that the other claims were barred by res judicata. As to the tenth claim, the commissioner assessed Weishaar's wage rate at $264.58, based on her average weekly earnings of $412.66. However, the district court found that the deputy and commissioner committed legal error by including the weeks ending July 14, 1990, and August 25, 1990, in the computation of average earnings because they were twenty-four-hour and nineteen-hour weeks and therefore were not customary under Iowa Code section 85.36 (1995). The district court's conclusion was based on Thilges v. Snap-On Tools Corp., 528 N.W.2d 614, 619 (Iowa 1995). In Thilges we held that only forty-hour weeks were to be included in the computation of the claimant's benefits because these were the employee's customary hours. Iowa Code section 85.36 provides: The basis of compensation shall be the weekly earnings of the injured employee at the time of the injury. Weekly earnings means gross salary, wages, or earnings of an employee to which such employee would have been entitled had the employee worked the customary hours for the full pay period in which the employee was injured, as regularly required by the employee's employer for the work or employment for which the employee was employed...: .... 6. In the case of an employee who is paid on a daily, or hourly basis, or by the output of the employee, the weekly earnings shall be computed by dividing by thirteen the earnings, not including overtime or premium pay, of said employee earned in the employ of the employer in the last completed period of thirteen consecutive calendar weeks immediately preceding the injury. (Emphasis added.) In Thilges we held that the customary hours for the full pay period for the claimant's job were forty hours even though the claimant had worked less than forty hours in seven of the thirteen weeks preceding the injury because unanticipated occurrences... caused her to miss work on certain days. Thilges, 528 N.W.2d at 619. According to Weishaar's testimony, she was never scheduled for less than forty hours unless she was under medical restrictions. A coworker testified that the coworker, also, had never been scheduled to work less than forty hours in the fifteen years she worked at Snap-On. Snap-On argues that it makes no sense for the statute to require averaging of the thirteen weeks prior to the injury, if the commissioner can only consider forty-hour weeks if they are customary. However, Thilges is clear: if a forty-hour week is customary for the particular employee, that must be the basis of computation. We said: The customary hours for the full pay period for [the employee's] job were, as the district court determined, a forty-hour week. We reject the employer's claims on its cross-appeal [arguing that the district court erred by not including several weeks in which the petitioner worked less than forty hours]. Thilges, 528 N.W.2d at 619. The district court properly determined that only forty-hour-work weeks were to be included in calculating Weishaar's average earnings. Because the two weeks at issue here were not customary, the trial court properly excluded them.