Opinion ID: 1991894
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Age as a Factor in Industrial Disability.

Text: The industrial commissioner discussed Nelson's age as a factor in the calculation of Nelson's industrial disability: Claimant's proximity to normal retirement age also affects his industrial disability. Claimant is near the end of the normal work life. Compared to a younger worker with the same injury, claimant has lost less future earning capacity as a result of his injury. Nelson complains that the industrial commissioner erroneously considered his age as a factor that reduced the amount of his industrial disability. We agree that this was error. Industrial disability measures an injured worker's lost earning capacity. Second Injury Fund v. Shank, 516 N.W.2d 808, 813 (Iowa 1994). Factors that should be considered include the employee's functional impairment, age, intelligence, education, qualifications, experience, and the ability of the employee to engage in employment for which he is suited. Id. Thus, the focus is not solely on what the worker can and cannot do; the focus is on the ability of the worker to be gainfully employed. Guyton v. Irving Jensen Co., 373 N.W.2d 101, 104 (Iowa 1985). Even more important for purposes of our discussion here is the concept that industrial disability rests on a comparison of what the injured worker could earn before the injury as compared to what the same person could earn after the injury. Thus, the level of post-injury earnings is important evidence of whether the injury impaired the worker's capacity to earn. IC Arthur Larson, The Law of Workmen's Compensation § 57.31(a), at 10-205 (1995). However, the commissioner here did not merely consider whether Nelson had the ability to earn the same wages after his shoulder injury as he could earn before his shoulder injury. The commissioner compared what Nelson could earn over his remaining worklife after his injury with what a hypothetical worker with the same characteristics, but younger, could earn. This comparison is irrelevant in determining Nelson's lost earning capacity. A calculation of the number of years of wages lost by Nelson might be helpful in assessing tort damages for lost earnings, but that is not the issue in a workers' compensation case. Thilges v. Snap-On Tools Corp., 528 N.W.2d 614, 616-17 (Iowa 1995) (rejecting argument that loss of earning capacity should be established with reference to loss of earnings that the injured employee will experience over that person's lifetime). An example might illustrate the distinction. Assume Nelson earned $1000 per week before his fall and $900 per week after his fall. This reduction in earnings is some evidence that his capacity to earn has been impaired. The fact that the effect of this impairment might be felt over fewer years than it would had Nelson been younger at the time of his injury does not affect the extent of the impairment itself. Again, the measure of industrial disability is the extent to which the injury impairs the employee['s] ability to earn wages, Simbro v. Delong's Sportswear, 332 N.W.2d 886, 887 (Iowa 1983) (emphasis added), not the dollar amount of earnings lost. When the industrial commissioner concludes, as he did here, that an older employee's industrial disability is less because the employee has fewer years left to work, what the commissioner is really saying is that the total amount of future lost wages is a factor in setting the degree of industrial disability. The incorrectness of this analysis is illustrated by applying this concept in another factual context. If the total amount of future lost wages affects the amount of industrial disability, then highly paid workers would be entitled to a greater industrial disability rating than workers in lower-paying jobs. This result would occur even though the two workers' capacities to be employed at the same level as they were employed before the injury are the same. This illustration highlights the fact that the comparison made in determining industrial disability is the worker's capacity to earn before and after the injury, not the worker's capacity to earn as compared to other workers. We agree with Nelson that the commissioner's consideration of Nelson's age as a factor reducing his industrial disability because Nelson would suffer less total future wage loss than a younger worker was erroneous. Our conclusion does not mean that age is irrelevant to determining industrial disability. To the extent Nelson's age affects his actual employability, it is appropriately considered. As the industrial commissioner recognized in his decision, Nelson's age would limit the retraining options available to him. Additionally, one of the vocational rehabilitation experts reported that Nelson would run into the problem of being accepted by [an] employer at age sixty and at sixty years old you have to have some other skills that are pretty marketable if you are going to get on with a new employer. See also Diederich v. Tri-City Ry., 219 Iowa 587, 594, 258 N.W. 899, 902 (1935) (recognizing that a fifty-nine-year-old man would find it difficult to find employment in a new field). There is simply no evidence in the record that Nelson's age would increase his employability and thereby, reduce the level of his industrial disability. Therefore, we hold the commissioner committed reversible error in concluding that Nelson had less industrial disability than he otherwise would have had merely because he was near retirement age.