How Can I Calculate My Lost Wages?
Michael Babboni
Personal Injury
Whether you’ve been injured in a car accident, a slip and fall, a defective product accident, or any sort of personal injury situation, you’re likely looking at lost wages. This loss of income is the “cherry on top” of mounting medical bills and other damages, and may make it seem impossible to ever move past your accident situation. Lost wages can be calculated into your personal injury settlement, and all it takes is learning just how to calculate your lost wages and some help from an experienced St. Petersburg personal injury lawyer.Prepare First
Before you go into calculating your lost wages, you’ll need to prepare first. Just like you needed to gather evidence to prove your accident, you’ll need to gather proof of the wages being lost. For any medical condition that bars you from working, you’ll be required to have all of the medical information necessary to support your case. You’ll need documentation from your employer confirming your state of employment, and you’ll need pay stubs or W-2 forms backing up the amount of wages being lost.
Basic Lost Wages Calculation
Most employees in the United States are paid by the hour or paid via a salary, and either of these methods can be calculated pretty easily when figuring out your lost wages amount. Calculating hourly wages is relatively easy, and you’ll simply want to multiply the amount you make per hour by the number of hours you work per day to figure out your daily wage. Once you have your daily wage, you’ll want to multiply this number by the number of days you’ve missed. For example, if a person makes $15 per hour and they work 8 hours per day, their daily pay is $120. If they have missed 10 workdays, their lost wages would calculate to be $1,200.
Calculating lost wages in salary situations is a little more complicated, but not at all out of reach. In these instances, you’ll want to take your yearly salary and divide it by 2080, or the number of regular weekday work hours in a single year. Once you have this figure, you’ll want to multiply it by the number of hours you’ve missed due to your accident. For example, if a person has a yearly salary of $56,000, they will find that their “hourly” wage is right around $26.90. If they’ve missed 1 work week of 8 hour workdays, they’re looking at around 40 hours of lost wages. This means that their calculable lost wages would be $1,076.
Lost Wages For Different Employment Situations
While most American workers are paid either by salary or by hourly wage, most certainly doesn’t mean all. Those who are self-employed will have a more complicated process to figure out their lost wages, but will start by using the figures on their 1099 tax forms. Those who permanenly lose the ability to carry out the career they once had may also be entitled to loss of earning capacity, and the loss of their earning potential going forward. For example, if a person was a skilled carpenter who was earning $20 per hour, and their accident caused them to lose ability to use their hands, they could be compensated for this loss of earning potential.
If you’ve been in an accident in the St. Petersburg are and you’re looking for compensation for your damages, we can help. Lost wages are just one financial hit many take after suffering from an accident of any type, and it pays to have a skilled attorney on your side.