Understanding Off Work Payments - Why Do I Only Get Part of My Pay?

When an injured worker receives their first check from the workers’ compensation insurer for being off of work, they often wonder why the amount is so low. How did the insurer calculate how much money I should receive?

Under Nevada workers’ compensation laws, the insurer is required to calculate the injured worker’s average monthly wage. A history of wages earned for a period of 12 weeks prior to the date of injury must be used to calculate an average monthly wage. Normally the insurer will go back the 12 weeks of pay history prior to the date of injury.

Sometimes, the 12 week period of wages earned is not representative of the average monthly wage of the injured employee. For example, there may be certain times of the year when the injured worker is working lots of overtime, while some periods they may work their regular 40 hours and no overtime. In this event, wages earned over a period of 1 year or the full period of employment, if it is less than 1 year, may be used. Nevada law required the insurers to use the higher of the calculations. Perhaps this is why the overwhelming amount of time, if not all the time, we normally see the insurer only use the 12 week period.

But what if you were employed for only a day and were injured on the first day of work? Will the insurer still go back 12 weeks? The answer is no. If the injured worker does not have at least 4 weeks of wage history, then the average monthly wage is calculated by projection, using the rate of pay on the date of the injury and the projected working schedule of the injured worker.

As times can be hard and some people are forced to work two jobs, or some people may want to work two different jobs, there is a provision in Nevada law to address this issue, known as concurrent wages. Under Nevada law, “concurrent wages” means ...“the sum of wages earned or deemed to have been earned at each place of employment, including, without limitation, the sum of any and all money earned for work of any kind or nature performed by an employee for two or more employers during the one-year period immediately preceding the date of injury or the onset of occupational disease, whether measured by an hourly rate, salary, piecework, commissions, gratuities, bonuses, per diem, value of meals, value of housing or any other employment benefit that can be fairly calculated to a monetary value expressed in an average monthly amount.”

So why is your average monthly wage so important? For many reasons. Many of the benefits that the injured worker may be entitled to receive are based upon, in whole or in part, the average monthly wage. For example, if you are certified off of work and entitled to receive temporary total disability payments, the amount you receive will be based upon your average monthly wage. If you are entitled to temporary partial disability, it will be based upon your average monthly wage. If you receive a permanent partial disability award (the settlement) the average monthly wage is used in the calculation of the amount the injured worker will receive. There are many other benefits, including vocational rehabilitation, that will be affected also.

The bottom line. Make sure that when you suffer an industrial injury, that you have a certified expert attorney in the field of workers’ compensation law review all of you paystubs to determine which method should be used to give you the highest average monthly wage. Do you really want to rely on the insurance adjuster to give you the highest wage possible? Protect yourself, your rights, and most importantly, your family. Get proper expert advice now.

We hope that this has been helpful and informative. There are many other laws and regulations concerning the average monthly wage issue. We have just talked about a few to give a general overview. Please read the other blogs for more free, valuable information.

This blog was NOT AI generated and was personally written by an attorney with knowledge of the workers’ compensation system.

Joel A. Santos, Esq., is a Nevada worker’s compensation attorney. He is certified by the State Bar of Nevada as a Worker’s Compensation Expert and Specialist.

Copyright 2025 - Joel A. Santos, Esq.

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