Workers often require convalescent leave after an injury on the job. Workers’ compensation insurance can protect injured workers by giving them disability benefits. These benefits will cover some of the workers’ missed wages when they are at home recovering.
Unfortunately, even with good medical care available at no employee cost through workers’ compensation, not everyone hurt on the job fully recovers. Some employees can’t go back to the same job they did before, which means that they won’t be able to earn as much money as they did previously.
How does the workers’ compensation system in California protect injured workers from the impact of decreased earning potential?
There are supplemental job displacement benefits to help a worker find a new path
Even if you can’t continue the career you have pursued for years, that doesn’t mean you are without options. A little bit of job training could be all that you require to break into a new industry with comparable pay. If the physician who oversees your treatment declares you to have a permanent partial disability, you could qualify for benefits that can help you earn more in the future.
The supplemental job displacement benefit can help you if you can’t seem to find a job that pays what you made before your injury. Workers with lasting consequences from a work-acquired medical condition can receive up to $6,000 to apply to education and job retraining services that can help them become more competitive on the modern employment market.
Permanent partial disability can also help some workers
Perhaps the nature of your injury means that job retraining won’t necessarily increase your income opportunities. You could have functional limitations that keep you out of multiple demanding careers even if you can still do basic tasks, like greeting visitors at a shop or helping clean a facility.
In scenarios where you can work at a reduced level of pay, workers’ compensation could offer you partial permanent disability benefits that will help reduce the difference between what you made before your injury and what you can earn now. Exploring all the benefits available to you will help limit the financial and long-term impact of a job injury on your life.