Most employees in the United States are entitled to workers’ compensation should they suffer a medical illness or injury as a result of their job. This compensation is great not just for financial support, but also for providing emotional and mental relief. It would be easy for someone to be stressed and scared about their well-being after a work accident or incident if they had no income. For the most part, workers’ comp solves this.
But compensation isn’t the only benefit of this system. Workers’ comp can also help a worker when they return to work, giving them numerous benefits to adjust to their new post-incident life.
For example, someone who receives workers’ comp has every reasonable right to have their medical bills covered to fully heal, cure or treat the injuries or illnesses they suffered as a result of a work accident. In addition, there are also specific compensation provisions for people who become disabled — may it be temporarily or permanently — as a result of the work accident.
If you are able to return to your job after the accident, then you could still earn workers’ comp benefits (albeit at a reduced rate) if you don’t earn as much as you did before. If you earn an equal or greater amount, then workers’ comp benefits will likely be stopped. However, if you can’t return to your job as a result of the work accident, then you could still receive “vocational rehabilitation” to help you get a new job. This compensation usually has a hard cap that can’t be exceeded by the individual.
Source: FindLaw, “Workers’ Comp Benefits and Returning to Work,” Accessed Nov. 11, 2015