In addition to providing medical treatment, workers’comp insurance compensates injured employees for their disability and lost earnings. These compensation benefits can take several forms, depending how severe the injury is. Let’s take a closer look:
• Temporary disability. TD is intended to partially replace employees’ wages while they are disabled due to a work injury or illness. In most cases, TD provides benefits for a maximum of 104 weeks.
• Permanent disability. PD is provided to employees whose medical disability permanently affects their ability to work. The exact PD benefit depends on such factors as the employee’s medically determined impairment level, date of injury, age, occupation, and diminished future earning capacity.
• Supplemental Job Displacement Benefit. Available to qualifying employees whose injuries keep them from returning to the same job, this benefit helps pay for educational expenses to learn a new skill or trade.
• Death benefits. When an employee is fatally injured on the job, workers’ comp pays a weekly death benefit based on the number of surviving dependents.