Thursday, January 22, 2009

Prison Guard receives settlement in MRSA case

This is a news story about a prison guard who contracted a MRSA infection while at work. The infection caused significant scarring on her face. The case settled for $226,000.00. See the whole article here.

2009 Pennsylvania Average Weekly Wage Announced

Pursuant to the Workers' Compensation Act, Section 105.1, the Department of Labor & Industry has determined the statewide average weekly wage for injuries occurring on and after Jan. 1, 2009, shall be $836.00 per week. For purposes of calculating the update to payments for medical treatment rendered on and after Jan. 1, 2009, the percentage increase in the statewide average weekly wage is 3.6 percent.

Under the Workers' Compensation Act, injured workers are entitled to indemnity (wage-loss) benefits equal to two-thirds of their weekly wage for a work-related injury. However, there are minimum and maximum adjustments provided in the Act, and the benefit rate is set using the annual maximum in place at the time of injury. The maximum is based on the Department of Labor and Industry's calculation of the statewide average weekly wage.

The following schedules provide the weekly rates from calendar year 1993 to 2009. When referring to the schedules, read down the column for the calendar year during which the injury occurred.

For example, the maximum weekly compensation rate for calendar year 2009 is $836.00. The second block represents the weekly compensation rate to be 66 2/3 percent of the employee's average weekly wage if the average weekly wage falls between $1,254.00 and $627.01.

The third block reflects a weekly compensation rate of $418.00 if the employee's average weekly wage is between $627.00 and $464.44.

The last block is 90 percent of the employee's average weekly wage if his/her average weekly wage is $464.43 or less.

You can see the full schedule here.