Workers’ comp benefits updates

• Workers’ compensation benefits in New Jersey and Pennsylvania are calculated using a statewide average weekly wage and the year of the worker’s injury will determine the rates that apply.
• In New Jersey, a worker’s benefits are based on 70% of his average earnings. However, there is a maximum rate for benefits of $1,099 per week and a minimum rate of $293 per week.
• In Pennsylvania, the rate for benefits is generally two-thirds of the worker’s average earnings, subject to the SAWW as the maximum, which is $1,273 per week.
• If the worker’s earnings are $707.21 or lower, the rate is 90% of that amount.
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More fallout from train derailment

• Council members in Lisbon, Ohio,  heard a presentation by attorney Marc Dann of Dann Law and Tim Fox of Morgan & Morgan Law Firm about joining a class action lawsuit over the East Palestine train derailment.
• Dann advised that firefighters who develop cancer later in life could present a possible workers’ compensation claim against the village, plus workers’ compensation yearly premiums could increase.
• The goal would be to set up a medical trust fund would be something they could do as part of the lawsuit.
• No decision was made on whether the village participate in the lawsuit.
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Bill would help family of slain North Carolina police officer 

• A bill would extend death benefits to the families of public safety employees killed on their way to and from work.
• The measure would retroactively help the wife and daughter of a Raleigh police officer who was fatally shot in the Hedingham mass shooting.
• It effectively adds two words to expand who is covered under the current Public Safety Employees’ Death Benefits Act.
• That law says the spouse of a person killed in the line of duty would receive $100,000, and this act does not affect the benefits offered by the Workers’ Compensation Act.
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Proposal would help youth programs with workers’ comp

• A pair of bills in Iowa would allow employers to hire kids ages 14-17 for “work-based learning” programs for potentially hazardous jobs, such as manufacturing or construction, currently prohibited by law for teenage workers.
• The workers need a waiver granted by the Iowa Department of Workforce Development or the Department of Education.
• Employers, under the bills, would be shielded from legal liability for injuries sustained by young workers.
• Although the Senate version permits injured kids to access the state’s workers’ compensation system.
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