Did Your Overtime Disappear From Your Workers’ Comp Check? Here’s What’s Going On

If you regularly picked up overtime before your injury and now your weekly workers’ compensation check looks smaller than you expected, you’re probably wondering whether that extra time on the clock actually counted for anything. It’s a fair question, and the answer involves a calculation that a lot of workers never think about until they’re staring at their first benefit payment.

How Vermont Calculates Your Average Weekly Wage

Workers’ compensation benefits in Vermont aren’t based on your regular hourly rate alone. They’re based on your average weekly wage, a figure meant to reflect what you were actually earning before you got hurt. Under 21 V.S.A. § 650, this is generally calculated using your earnings over the weeks leading up to your injury, which means overtime, bonuses, and other regular earnings can factor into the number used to set your benefit rate.

That said, “can factor in” and “always will” aren’t the same thing. If your overtime was occasional or unpredictable, an insurer may push back on including it. If it was a consistent part of your schedule, week after week, there’s a stronger argument that it should be reflected in your average weekly wage. This is one of the more commonly disputed pieces of a workers’ comp claim, and it can make a real difference in your weekly check.

Why This Number Matters So Much

Once your average weekly wage is set, your temporary disability benefits are generally calculated at two-thirds of that figure, subject to state minimums and maximums. So if overtime gets left out of the calculation when it shouldn’t have been, you’re not just missing out on the overtime pay itself. You’re also missing out on two-thirds of it every single week you’re on benefits. Over the course of a claim that runs for months, that gap adds up fast.

What Can Go Wrong in the Calculation

A few common issues show up here. Sometimes an employer’s wage statement simply doesn’t reflect overtime accurately, especially if pay periods overlap in confusing ways. Other times, an insurer uses a shorter or cherry-picked window of pay stubs that happens to exclude your busiest weeks. And occasionally, workers just aren’t told that overtime is supposed to be part of the conversation at all, so nobody raises it.

Steps Worth Taking

If you suspect your overtime wasn’t properly counted, pull together your recent pay stubs and take a look at whether the overtime pattern was consistent in the months before your injury. It also helps to compare the wage statement your employer submitted against your own records, since discrepancies do happen and aren’t always intentional.

This is a technical piece of the claims process, and it’s one where a Vermont workers’ compensation lawyer can be genuinely useful. At Sluka Law PLC, we regularly review wage calculations for our clients to make sure overtime, shift differentials, and other regular earnings aren’t quietly left out of the number that determines your benefit rate. We’d be happy to take a look at your wage statement and let you know whether the math adds up.

Source:

legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/21/009/00650