Wage Loss

The wage loss (W.L. or WL) award provides compensation for the injured worker's loss of earnings resulting from the injury. An injured worker is eligible for wage loss compensation if they return to work (either their former employment or a new form of employment) and suffer a wage loss, or if they are unable to find work consistent with their physical capabilities.

Ohio Revised Code Section 4123.56(B) provides for payment of wage loss compensation. The Bureau and Industrial Commission have adopted a joint rule for wage loss, Ohio Administrative Code Section 4125-1-01. For a summary of the rule, an index, and the text of the rule click here.

To see the maximum rates for wage loss awards from 1990 to the present, click here.

For summaries of wage loss decisions by Ohio Courts, with links to the cases, click here.

Other information:

• Court: The Supreme Court has found that a nurse who changed her career after she could no longer work as a nurse due to an industrial injury did not lose eligibility for wage loss compensation as a result of changing her career. (November, 2003)
  
  
• Court: The Supreme Court held that an injured worker was entitled to working wage loss when he returned to a lower paying job for the employer he had worked for when injured, even though he did not conduct a job search. (June, 2002)
  
  
• Court: The Supreme Court has held that a doctor's report supported wage loss compensation, even though it referenced restrictions due to a non-allowed condition, because it indicated that the allowed condition was the cause of the wage loss. (August, 2002)
  
  
• Court: Receipt of Social Security Disability does not bar wage loss compensation. (August, 1999)
  
  
• Court: Supreme Court finds that wage loss benefits are not barred because an employee is no longer working for the company where they were working when injured. (February, 1999)
  
  
• Court: Supreme Court denies wage loss compensation to a self-employed individual. (February, 1999)
  
  
• Court: Supreme Court rules fire fighter with R.C. 4123.68(W) occupational disease not entitled to wage loss. (November, 1998)
  
  
• Court: Supreme Court decision in the Williams-Laker case that an injured worker is entitled to wage loss compensation for time missed from work to receive medical treatment for the injury. (February, 1998)
  
  
• Administrative: Wage loss rules adopted. (May, 1997)
  
  
• Court: The Ohio Supreme Court held that wage loss compensation was payable where an injured worker was fired, because the medical evidence indicated he could no longer perform the job. (September, 1996)