North Carolina Supreme Court rules against injured workers

Our North Carolina Supreme Court has ruled against injured workers again in a recent case. As most of you know an injured worker is entitled to be paid 2/3 of her average weekly wages if she's unable to work. What all goes into "wages?" Ten years ago the Court of Appeals had excluded fringe benefits like health insurance and vacations. That decision was largely based on the idea that it is too hard to put a value on health insurance while it is eay to calculate your hourly payrate or salary.  But what about an employer who matches your contributions to a retirement plan? As employers we can tell you that many employees are willing to make a little less if there is good health insurance, vacations, and a retirement plan. Those of you who have had unions negotiating contracts on your behalf know that the cost of the benefit package is a tradeoff against the hourly rate of pay.

But now the Supreme Court has said that contributions to your retirement plan -- even if these are made explicitly in exchange for a reduce in your hourly rate of pay -- do not count toward your average weekly wage. In doing so the Court said it would leave it to the legislature to be more specific about what it intended. While this decision might not have been completely unexpected we still find it disappointing. In our minds, if the Industrial Commission or the courts are unclear about who to favor: big employers and their insurance companies on one side or workers injured and out of work on the other, they should always err on the side of helping an injured worker.