Learn how New Jersey law calculates compensation for temporary and permanent disability due by a job-related accident or illness—and if you qualify if you acquire COVID-19 at work.
A work-related accident or sickness may have a significant impact on your life, affecting not just your health but also your job, money, and general well-being. If you are qualified for worker’s compensation benefits, New Jersey’s workers’ compensation system will assist you go back to work as quickly as possible by providing medical treatment, vocational rehabilitation, and other services. You may also be compensated for part of your lost income, but not all of it. This article discusses the various kinds and quantities of benefits that you may be entitled to if you submit a workers’ compensation claim.
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New Jersey makes it easier for COVID-19 essential employees to get workers’ compensation.
In September 2020, New Jersey Governor Murphy enacted legislation making it simpler for important state employees to qualify for workers’ compensation payments if they contract COVID-19 during the coronavirus pandemic. The legislation, which goes into effect on March 9, 2020, presumes that COVID-19 is a work-related sickness covered by workers’ compensation if an essential worker acquires the disease while working away from home during the public health emergency. If the employer (or its insurer) rejects the claim, it must demonstrate that the employee was not exposed to the virus at work.
The definition of essential employees in the law includes a wide range of workers, including healthcare workers, first responders, social workers, transportation workers, other employees performing essential functions in close proximity to the public—such as delivery and grocery workers—and anyone declared to be an essential employee by a public authority during an emergency (N.J. Stat. 34:15-31.11-34:15-31.14 (2021).)
Although the presumption only applies if these essential employees contract COVID-19, any New Jersey employee who has been directed to quarantine by their employers or a public health official following a known exposure to the coronavirus during the course of their work may be eligible for temporary disability benefits (discussed below).
Benefits for Temporary Disability
If you are unable to work for more than seven days due to an on-the-job accident or sickness, you are eligible to temporary total disability (TTD) compensation. In New Jersey, these benefits are 70% of your average weekly salary before to the accident, with a maximum and minimum that varies each year. The weekly maximum payment for injuries occurring in 2021 is $969, while the weekly minimum benefit is $258.
TTD advantages last till you:
are able to return to work, have attained maximal medical progress (meaning you are unlikely to improve even with more treatment), or have earned 400 weeks of benefits.
(See New Jersey Statutes 34:15-12(a), 34:15-14 (2021).)
Benefits for Permanent Total Disability
Once you’ve attained maximal medical recovery, your doctor will assess you to see whether you have any long-term disabilities as a consequence of your injuries and, if so, how severe they are. If you are permanently and fully incapacitated, which means you are unable to work due to your injury, you will continue to receive weekly payments at your temporary total rate. However, after 450 weeks of receiving these benefits, you must undergo a review and demonstrate that you performed physical or educational rehabilitation (if directed to do so) but are still unable to earn at your pre-injury level. If you can demonstrate this, your benefits will be prolonged for as long as you are handicapped, with the amount of your payments decreased according to whatever earnings you are able to make.
Certain catastrophic injuries, such as the loss of both eyes, hands, arms, feet, or legs, or a combination of the two, are immediately regarded as permanent and complete impairment. (See New Jersey Statutes 34:15-12 (2021).)
New Jersey Permanent Partial Disability Benefits
If your job-related accident or sickness has left you with a long-term medical condition or loss of function (also known as an impairment), but you may still work in some capacity, you may be eligible for permanent partial disability compensation. The amount you get will be determined by the level of your disability, the afflicted area of your body, and your pre-injury earnings.
New Jersey has a schedule of disabilities that lists the maximum benefits for impairments to specific bodily parts, such as a hand, arm, foot, leg, or eye, at various levels (expressed in terms of a percentage of lost function). For example, if your leg was amputated as a consequence of your accident, you would be entitled to 315 weeks of benefits at 70% of your pre-injury income, up to a total maximum of around $223,650 for injuries in 2021. However, if you just lost 50% of your leg’s function, you’d get 157.5 weeks of benefits, up to a total of $47,173.50 for 2021 injuries. (The current schedule of impairments, as well as the current maximum and minimum disability rates, may be found on the state’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development website.)
You may get a “nonscheduled award” for a portion of the maximum time period (600 weeks) that corresponds to the severity of your handicap if you have persistent impairments to other bodily parts (such as your head, spine, or organs). For example, if your doctor awards you a 10% disability rating for the whole body, you may be eligible for 60 weeks of benefits. Again, the weekly amount will be calculated using 70% of your pre-injury earnings, up to the monetary limit. (See New Jersey Statutes 34:15-12 (2021).)
Additional Advantages
Other forms of workers’ compensation benefits available in New Jersey include:
Medical advantages. Workers’ compensation pays for any medical care required as a result of a workplace accident, as long as the therapy is permitted. (Find out how to seek medical care via workers’ compensation.)
Benefits upon death. When a worker dies as a consequence of a work-related accident or sickness, the surviving spouse, minor children, and certain other dependents are entitled to death benefits.
Funeral costs. Worker’s compensation in New Jersey also covers the funeral and burial expenses of a dead employee’s family up to $5,000.
(See New Jersey Statutes 34:15-12(e), 34:15-13, and 34:15-15 (2021).)
Workers’ Compensation Benefit Restrictions
As you can see, workers’ compensation payments only cover a fraction of your lost income and do not cover any pain and suffering caused by your accident. While this may seem to be unjust, it is a necessary trade-off in the workers’ compensation system. The benefit of workers’ compensation is that you may collect benefits promptly without having to file a lawsuit and prove that your employer was at blame for causing your injury. The disadvantage is that you cannot recover the full amount of your losses. (However, under some restricted circumstances, you may be allowed to suit outside of the worker’s compensation system.)