Opinion ID: 1897168
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: particular provisions of the worker's compensation law

Text: Provisions of the current Worker's Compensation Law also support the conclusions that weekly benefits are (1) intended as partial replacement for lost wages, (2) intended as compensation for lost wage earning capacity, and (3) not intended as compensation for pain and suffering. For example, La.R.S. 23:1201 provides in part: Payments of compensation ... shall be paid as near as may be possible, at the same time and place as wages were payable to the employee before the accident ... (emphasis added). La.R.S. 23:1206 provides for a credit against compensation payment if an employee accepts voluntary payment or unearned wages from his employer. La.R.S. 23:1225 provides for reduction of benefits if an injured worker receives federal unemployment benefits. La. R.S. 23:1221(3)(d)(iii) provides for reduction of benefits if an injured worker receives old age insurance benefits under the Social Security Act. The legislature obviously envisioned compensation payment would be made in such a way as to avoid interruption of regular wages following an accident. This was done by insuring benefits would be paid at the same time and place as regular wages, but only to the extent that wages or other forms of wage replacement were not available. Compensation benefits generally provide two-thirds of weekly wages during periods of recovery from work-related injury based on the severity of the injury. La.R.S. 23:1221. In this way the economic hardship of work-related injuries is at least partially reduced. Not only do weekly benefits compensate in part for lost wages, but it is clear they insure against lost ability or capacity to earn wages. Two specific provisions of the Worker's Compensation Law bear this out. First, as has already been explained, a part-time or seasonal worker may be entitled to more in compensation than he actually would have earned from that particular employer. This circumstance is consistent with the notion that weekly benefits insure against lost ability to earn in addition to actual lost wages from that employer. If not injured (disabled), the worker could possibly have secured another wage earning job. However, since the worker now has diminished capacity to work, the Act provides for benefits which may exceed the wages the employer would have paid had the worker never been disabled. The second provision of the Worker's Compensation Law which demonstrates weekly benefits insure against lost ability to work and earn wages and not merely to lost wages, vis a vis his former job, is the schedule for permanent partial disability. La.R.S. 23:1221(4). Benefits are paid for anatomical loss of use or amputation according to a schedule and regardless of whether the employee is unable to continue in his current job. Though the employee has not lost any actual wages from that employer, it is apparent the permanent partial disability could impair the employee's ability to get a better paying job. [8] Finally, the current version of the Worker's Compensation Law indicates implicitly that pain and suffering is not an element of weekly benefits. La.R.S. 23:1221(3) provides if an injured employee is able to earn a percentage of his former wages by working while in pain, then he shall not receive supplemental earnings benefits for that percentage of wages earned. That is to say, pain and suffering itself is not compensable, but only the inability to work and earn a wage is compensable.