An injured employee may return to work and earn less than before the injury because of reduced hours, a lower rate, restricted duties, missed shifts, or different employment. North Carolina partial-disability analysis requires more than comparing two paychecks. The wage periods, average weekly wage, actual earnings, earning capacity, medical restrictions, reason for the difference, and benefit history should be documented week by week.

A lower paycheck after an injury is an important data point, but it is not by itself the statutory calculation or proof that the compensable injury caused the wage difference.

Build a weekly wage and work-capacity ledger

  • The accepted or adjudicated injury, average weekly wage, compensation rate, forms, awards, agreements, benefit start and stop dates, and every payment
  • Preinjury pay periods, base rate, overtime, bonuses, allowances, concurrent employment, schedule, time records, and payroll method
  • Post-return employer, job title, written duties, restrictions, hours offered and worked, rate, differentials, overtime, absences, accommodations, and gross earnings
  • Authorized medical work notes, appointment dates, symptom reports, functional limits, changes, release status, job descriptions, and employer communications
  • Layoff, discipline, attendance, economic reduction, job search, other work, unemployment benefits, wage correction, and any noninjury reason offered for reduced earnings

Apply the partial-incapacity formula carefully

G.S. 97-30 addresses partial incapacity and states a weekly benefit based on two-thirds of the difference between the preinjury average weekly wage and the average weekly wage the employee is able to earn afterward, subject to the statutory maximum and duration provisions. Confirm the injury date, current statute, prior total-disability weeks, and whether actual earnings fairly reflect earning capacity.

Read Form 28T as a return-to-work record

The Industrial Commission’s Form 28T is used for specified trial returns to work when total-disability compensation stops. It records the return date, same-or-greater or reduced wages, employer, and partial-disability question. Preserve the completed form, filing and service records, attached wage information, work restrictions, and later corrections. A form entry should be reconciled with payroll and the actual job.

Document an unsuccessful trial return

The Commission’s Form 28U provides a process to request resumption of total-disability compensation after an unsuccessful trial return to work and contains a treating-physician certification section. The exact procedural and medical requirements should be reviewed promptly. Stopping work, reducing hours, or changing jobs does not automatically produce the same benefit result.

Reconcile partial payments with the actual weeks

  • Calculate each pay period using source payroll rather than a rounded monthly estimate
  • Separate gross wages, reimbursed expenses, benefits, paid leave, bonuses, and amounts earned in a different week
  • Compare partial-disability checks with carrier calculations and identify skipped, duplicated, late, or adjusted periods
  • Track when restrictions, hours, rates, job availability, or medical status changed and which date the payer used
  • Keep temporary partial, temporary total, permanent partial, medical, unemployment, and third-party recoveries in separate ledger columns

The related job modification and return-to-work guide explains how to compare written restrictions, task demands, accommodations, and actual performance.

Rosensteel Fleishman Car Accident & Injury Lawyers provides information about North Carolina workers’ compensation claims involving lower postinjury wages. Compensability, disability, earning capacity, calculation, and procedure depend on the claim record.

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