Court Opinion

ID: 9547670
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:50:15.78705+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:17:56.385399
License: Public Domain

ROONEY, Justice,
specially concurring.
I concur in the result reached by the majority opinion. However, I do not believe that a legal determination can be “elastic” and subject to variation on a case-to-case basis. The question here presented to us requires a positive answer by us so that an appeal to us in every case will not be required for interpretation of a statute on a case-by-case basis.
When the legislature spoke of an “actual monthly rate of pay,” it was not speaking of “actual monthly pay.” In construing a statute, words are given their plain, ordinary and usual meaning. Board of County Commissioners v. Ridenour, Wyo., 623 P.2d 1174, reh. denied 627 P.2d 163 (1981); Jahn v. Burns, Wyo., 593 P.2d 828 (1979). Each word must be given meaning and the statute should be construed so that no part or word will be inoperative or superfluous. State Board of Equalization v. Cheyenne Newspapers, Inc., Wyo., 611 P.2d 805 (1980); Basin Electric Power Cooperative v. State Board of Control, Wyo., 578 P.2d 557 (1978).
A variance in amount of time worked in different months can create many problems in determining the “actual monthly pay” for the purposes of the statute. This is not so in determining the “actual monthly rate of pay.”
The time for determining the “actual monthly rate of pay” under this enactment is the time of the actual injury. It would be unfair to declare such rate of pay to be that paid last year or last week or yesterday or even that contemplated to be paid at a future time. The worker’s benefit should be figured on the rate of pay which existed at the time of the injury. Such is the actual rate of pay, and is that contemplated by the statute.
An actual rate of pay for any given period — annually, weekly, hourly, etc., — can be converted into a monthly rate of pay with simple arithmetic. The same can be done with regard to actual pay if such pay for a given interval is constant. The actual rate of pay at the time of injury is always constant. However, one other factor is necessary to compute the benefit if payment is actually being made for a period other than a month. The needed factor before conversion can be made is the amount of time to be worked in such period. For example, if the rate of pay is $500.00 per month, all factors are present for determining the benefit regardless of the amount of time actually worked, or to be worked in the several months. But if the rate of pay is $5.00 per hour, it will be necessary to ascertain the number of hours contemplated to be worked in a month in order to ascertain the monthly benefit.
An eight-hour, five-day, forty-hour week is generally accepted as the standard work time in the United States. The standard work time under the Fair Labor Standards *72•Act is forty hours per week. 29 U.S.C. § 207. The standard work time for state and county employees is forty hours per week and eight hours per day. Section 27-5-101, W.S.1977. The work day for employment in mines and reduction and refining works is eight hours. Sections 27-5-102, 27-5-103, 27-5-105, W.S.1977. The legislature is taken to have such in mind when enacting the Worker’s Compensation Act. All statutes are presumed to be enacted with full knowledge of existing law. Brittain v. Booth, Wyo., 601 P.2d 532 (1979); White v. Board of Land Commissioners, Wyo., 595 P.2d 76 (1979).
Of course, unless prevented by statute, there is nothing to stop an employer and employee from agreeing to a different time span for work, whether it be less or more, i.e., twenty hours per week or sixty hours per week. Subject to such agreement, the legislature enacted the Worker’s Compensation Act with an understanding that the standard work time would be forty hours per week or eight hours per day on a five-day work week. The standard can be converted into any other time interval, i.e., 2,080 hours per year, 173½ hours per month, etc.
The benefit for an injured worker should be computed at his actual monthly rate of pay, with a conversion of annual, hourly, weekly, etc., rates of pay to a monthly rate of pay on the basis of the standard work time being a forty-hour, five-day work week, subject, however, to an agreement between employee and employer of another standard work time. This, regardless of actual time worked, be it a new employee who began work the day before the injury or a long-time employee who worked eighty hours in the preceding month.
In this case, appellant’s monthly benefit would be $635.54. As reflected in the majority opinion, the award of $800.00 was not contested by a cross appeal, and the district court’s decision should be affirmed.