When you get hurt at work, your daily life will change abruptly. You have to leave work to seek medical care, and you may not fully recover for weeks if not months.
During that time, your entire family will lose out on your usual income and possibly your help around the house. You may also accrue thousands of dollars in medical bills. Florida workers’ compensation will typically cover your medical care related to an injury on the job. You may also qualify for disability benefits that cover your lost income.
Medical coverage is complete, but disability pay will only cover, at most, two-thirds of what you usually make. Can you potentially go back to work before you fully recover from your injury so that you don’t have to accept reduced income?
Injured workers can request accommodations
Depending on the kind of work you perform and the nature of your injury, you may be able to ask your employer to help you stay on the job. If your physician agrees that you could continue working with certain accommodations, like breaks to rest your body, equipment to minimize the strain of your job or different job responsibilities, their letter may be all that you need to convince your employer to work with you.
Those accommodations can help you stay on the job, alleviating the impact of your injury for you and also for your employer. In some scenarios, if your employer allows you to take a different position until you recover, you may have to accept lower wages. Workers’ compensation can protect you with temporary partial disability benefits in that scenario.
What if your employer can’t accommodate you?
Sometimes, the nature of your job or the size of your employer’s company will make it difficult for them to accommodate an injured worker. If there aren’t enough other workers to cover your job responsibilities or if the company doesn’t have light-duty options, you may need to take a leave of absence until you fully recovered. Temporary total disability benefits can help workers unable to earn any income because of a work-acquired medical condition.
Knowing the rules that protect you and the workers’ compensation benefits available to you will reduce the impact of your injury on your wife.
