The general rule is that Temporary Total Disability (TTD) is computed based upon the best of the employee’s prior two years of earnings. Say the employee was injured in 2016 and he would have made $30,000 but in 2015 he made $15,000 and in 2014, he made $4,000. His TTD would be computed based on the $15,000 he earned in 2015.
There are exceptions to this rule. In order to determine whether an exception applies to your case, you will need to speak with an attorney.
To find out how much money you would be entitled to, you divide the gross earnings of that best year (in our case $15,000) by 50 to yield a Gross Weekly Wage. If the gross earning were $15,000, that divided by 50 equals $300 Gross Weekly Wages.
Then you go to the Alaska Workers Compensation Board website’s Benefit Calculator Page: http://labor.state.ak.us/wc/benefitcalculator.htm.
In box marked "type of benefit", you would select Temporary Total Disability, then type in your date of injury and your Gross Weekly Wage and the website will compute how much you are entitled to. In our case, if the Employee was injured on 2/1/2016 and had a Gross Weekly Wage of $300, and he filed his taxes as single with one exemption, then he would be entitled to $259.14 per week. The checks come every two weeks so he would receive $518.28 for every two-week period that he was totally disabled from work.
Keenan Powell has practiced law in the State of Alaska for more than 30 years and has dedicated her practice to Workers Compensation representing injured Alaskans.
All consultations are free. If you want to set up a meeting, use the contact form on www.keenanpowell.com or call: 907 258 7663.