If you experience an injury or develop an illness related to your job, you may be eligible to receive workers’ compensation benefits aimed at replacing some of your earnings.
This program offers a variety of benefits to injured or ill employees. You may not qualify for all types of benefits and understanding each category can be important.
Qualifying for wage loss benefits
As explained by the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, you may not begin receiving wage loss benefits until you have missed three days of work. However, if your injury or illness lasts long enough that you miss more than 10 working days, you may ultimately be compensated for the first three days you missed as well.
Four types of wage loss benefits
While workers’ compensation wage loss benefits acknowledge your need to receive some income, they do not pay the same amount of money that you would earn when you work. Rather, you receive a portion of your normal earnings via workers’ compensation. The amount you receive may vary based upon the type of benefit you qualify for.
Wage loss benefit categories focus on the extent and duration of your disability. Your injury may result in a partial or a complete disability and you may be out of work for a short time or you may be unable to work again. The four wage loss categories are temporary total, temporary partial, permanent total and permanent partial benefits.
This information is not intended to provide legal advice but is instead meant to give residents in Minnesota an overview of the different types of benefit categories the state’s workers’ compensation program includes.