As this blog has discussed before, workers’ compensation pays for two basic things after a New York employee gets hurt on the job. First, the program will cover the employee’s medical bills and some other out-of-pocket expenses as well.
Second, workers’ compensation will also cover a portion of an injured worker’s lost wages if he must be off work in order to recover from his injury. How much a person will get in compensation, and for how long, depends on a number of case-specific factors, but there are four basic classifications of work loss benefits.
If it looks like a person will eventually recover and be able to return to work, then she will receive temporary disability payments. The payments will vary depending on whether the disability is total, meaning that the victim cannot return to work at all or partial, meaning that the employee still has some ability to earn an income despite her injury.
The case of a permanent work-related disability is a little different. A person who is deemed to be totally and permanently disabled due to a work accident or illness can get full benefits indefinitely. In some cases, he may even be able to work in some other profession and still get benefits.
If someone has suffered an injury that the law deems to be a partial disability, then compensation will depend first on whether or not the injury is on a state-prescribed schedule or list of injuries.
If the injury is on the list, then the victim will get the payment called for, at the frequency called for, on the list. Otherwise, how much money a person gets and for how long, will be based on how severe her injury was in terms of her lost earning capacity.
