The average weekly wage for Oregon
workers disabled on the job during fiscal year (FY) 1997 was
$445.12. The average weekly wage for all workers (excluding federal)
was $526.37; a difference of $81.25. Table 1 documents the decline
in wages of injured workers relative to those of all Oregon workers.
For more information on this subject, the publication Differences
in Average Weekly Wages is available upon request.
Injured workers who are “disabled” for more than three calendar days receive time loss benefits equal to two-thirds of their weekly wage at time of injury, up to the maximum benefit limitation. For injuries occurring in FY 1997, the benefit limitation was $518.60. The maximum benefit changes each July 1, with the time loss maximum set to the average weekly wage of all Oregon employees during the fourth quarter of the preceding calendar year.
During FY 1997, 2,307 injured workers (9.1 percent of the total) had weekly wages above $777.90, which is the wage at which claimants received the maximum benefit. Were there no benefit limitation, these higher-wage workers would have received time loss in excess of $518.60. However, any adverse effects of the benefit structure depend upon the extent to which tax-free workers’ compensation benefits replace after-tax earnings or purchasing power. Figure 1 shows the distribution of both wages and claims at $100 intervals for FY 1997.
| Table 2 shows the distribution of cases by age. Of the FY 1997 claims, 57.4 percent were for workers aged 39 and younger, with the greatest number in the 35-39 age group. The number of claims per age group steadily declines thereafter, while the average wage increases until peaking at $527.63 per week in the 55-59 age group. |
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Table 3 presents wage data by gender of the claimants and industry division as determined by the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) of the employer at injury. In FY 1997, women accounted for 30.9 percent of the claims, continuing a consistent trend of frequencies between 28-33 percent . The average wage for female workers was $341.87, while male workers averaged $491.19 per week. Manufacturing had the greatest number of claims, with 20.1 percent of the total. The services industry registered the most claims by females, which made up 10.0 percent of all claims. Construction had the highest average wage, $569.05. Retail trade had the lowest average wage, $317.12.  |
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Table 4 shows the occupations (10 or more claims) with the highest and lowest average weekly wages. The occupation with the most claims in FY 1997, truck driver, had 2,200 claims (8.6 percent of the total) and recorded an average wage of $564.70. Table 5 depicts the percentage of claims and the average weekly wage by the highest level of formal education completed at the time of injury.   This document also available in Adobe Acrobat portable document format (for a cleaner printout) click here. [ pdf ] |