How Are Loss of Earnings Calculated After an Injury?

Injuries can cause you to miss work, which can lead to lost wages. If you’ve been injured and are unable to work, it’s important to keep detailed records of the time you were unable to work. This will help with calculating how much money you lost due to your injury. 

We invite you to schedule a consultation with our personal injury attorney if you suffered an injury and lost wages. At Crary Buchanan, we strive to get our clients the compensation they deserve following a personal injury. So contact our law office today to discuss your needs. 

One of the first steps you should take when calculating lost wages is to figure out your gross monthly income before the injury. Then, you’ll need to subtract your monthly expenses like rent, food, and utilities from your monthly income. This will give you your net monthly income that can be used for calculating lost wages.

To find out how much money you lost in a given month due to the injury-related absence, use this equation:

Net Monthly Income – Gross Income = Net Change in Earnings

Add up the total net change in earnings for each month and divide by 12 to get a yearly calculation of how much money you lost in a year due to absence from work.

If you are self-employed and can’t deduct any expenses from your net monthly income, then add up the total net change in earnings for each month and divide by 12 to get a yearly calculation of how much money you lost in a year due to absence from work.

The amount of lost wage depends on the injury. If you are injured and cannot return to your job, then you will lose wages from that job. In some cases, this can be calculated as a percentage of your total income from all jobs.

If you are self-employed and unable to work due to an injury, then it is a little more complicated. But in general, if your typical working hours were affected after getting hurt, then the calculation would work out as follows:

Weekly gross income x number of weeks worked = total gross earnings

Weekly gross income x number of weeks off = total gross earnings 

Total gross earnings – weekly gross income = lost wages.

For example:

$1000 per week x 12 weeks worked = $12000
$1000 per week x 5 weeks off = $5000
$12000 – $5000 = $7000 in lost wages

The other losses that you can include in your calculations are those that provide a decrease in lifestyle. These may be things such as a decrease in the quality of life. For example, if you are disabled and unable to work after an accident but also lose the ability to care for a loved one, then you may have additional losses that need to be calculated in your lost wages.

If you have lost wages due to an accident, you may be entitled to compensation. Compensation may include the following:

In order to receive compensation for lost wages from a car accident or another type of injury, you will need to prove your income loss. This can be done by speaking with a personal injury attorney and providing essential information, such as the accident/police report, medical records, and anything else that relates to your claim.

You should also provide a list of other sources of income, like child support, disability payments, social security benefits, pensions, or retirement accounts that you draw from during this time frame. If you are self-employed, you will need to calculate how much your business has been affected. This can be done by calculating how much money was generated over that same time frame, as well as what percentage of income the injury has cost. 

The next step is to calculate how many hours per day you were working before the accident and how many hours per day it is taking now due to the loss in income. Your personal injury attorney can help you compile the appropriate documentation as they build your case. 

At Crary Buchanan, our goal is to get you the maximum compensation for your injury. If you are a victim of an injury that causes you to miss work and lose out on wages, we urge you to contact us right away. The sooner you seek our services, the sooner our personal injury attorney can get to work building your case in your favor.

Let our personal injury attorney at Crary Buchanan assist you in getting the compensation you deserve. We will work hard to help you become whole again, so call us today at (772) 287-2600. If you prefer, you may also email us at info@crarybuchanan.com to get started.

The information in this blog post is for reference only and not legal advice. As such, you should not decide whether to contact a lawyer based on the information in this blog post. Moreover, there is no lawyer-client relationship resulting from this blog post, nor should any such relationship be implied. If you need legal counsel, please consult a lawyer licensed to practice in your jurisdiction.

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