Do You Know the Rule? Wis. Computation of Weekly Wage

Milwaukee, WI (WorkersCompensation.com) -- People probably don't go into workers' compensation because they have a love for numbers, but you won't get far before running into math along the way.

So, to keep things clear on how to calculate what's due to whom, states, like Wisconsin, explain what's included in certain computations.

The information that follows covers what America's Dairy Land details about the computation of weekly wage.

Increases or Decreases in Hours

In determining daily earnings, if the number of hours a full-time employee worked had been either decreased or increased for a period of at least 90 total days prior to the injury, then this revised schedule worked during those 90 days is considered to be normal full-time employment.

Employees' Furnishing Their Own Trucks

When an employee furnishes her truck to the employer and is paid by the employer in gross to include operating expenses, one-third of that gross sum is considered as wages.

Prisoners

Prisoners injured in prison industries are considered to be earning the maximum average weekly earnings.

Minimum Workweek

The 24-hour minimum workweek does not apply to a part-time employee unless the employee is a member of a regularly scheduled class of part-time employees. In all other cases part-time employment is on the basis of normal full-time employment in such job. This rule does not apply to employees who are injured on or after April 10, 2022.

Workers' Comp 101: In Wisconsin Department of Health & Social Services v. Labor & Industry Review Commission, 464 N.W. 2d 74 (Wis. Ct. App. 1990), a prisoner who was working as "lead man" in the maintenance department for $0.45 per hour was not considered to be in the prison industry. Why? "We cannot ... cut the bread thick enough to fit [the prisoner's] 'assigned work' within the compass of 'prison industries,'" since it was not an industry established by the state's Department of Health & Social Services with approval of the Prison Industries Board. Thus, the court found that the prisoner's "weekly earnings for performing the work assigned to him while he was in prison should have been 'taken' at 'the usual going earnings' paid for similar services—maintenance lead man—on a normal full-time basis."

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