How Does Workers’ Compensation Work If I Have Multiple Jobs?

Did you know that nearly 10 million Americans, or about 6 percent of the workforce have more than one job? Having multiple jobs helps you bring in extra income and may allow you to be more flexible with your schedule, but it can also make things more complicated if you suffer a work injury that prevents you from working. Today, we explain how workers’ compensation works if you are injured while working at one of your multiple jobs in Minnesota.

Two Jobs, One Work Injury

Workers’ compensation becomes a little more complicated if you are injured at one of your jobs, but you still have plenty of rights. We’ll touch on some of the potential drawbacks that you’ll want to address with your employer later in this article, but for now, we’ll focus on what you’re entitled to receive.

For starters, you are entitled to receive workers’ compensation benefits from the insurance company of the employer at which you were injured. What type of compensation you can file for will depend on your injury, your medical assessment, and how much time you will miss. Your workers’ compensation attorney can help you understand if you’re eligible for temporary partial disability, wage loss benefits, or some other compensation package. Also, it’s worth noting that the company that you were injured at cannot fire you for filing for workers’ compensation, since they were at least in part responsible for your injury.

Injured At Another Job

The complications set in when we look at the duties and obligations of your other employers – the companies you are employed by but were not working for at the time of the injury. They have much looser regulations and responsibilities after your injury. For example, you are not allowed to receive compensation from that employer even though you are dealing with a work injury. After all, that employer should not be held responsible for a workplace accident that they had no hand in creating.

That may not seem all that bad, but you’re also not offered the same protections against job termination from the secondary employer. This means that if you’re unable to meet your work obligations at your other job, they are allowed to fire you without repercussions. This holds true even if you consider that employer your “main” job, and the other job, the one you were injured at, a secondary job. Employers certainly don’t need to terminate you because you suffered an injury at another job, and most places understand the circumstances and will be willing to make arraignments, just know that they are legally allowed to terminate your employment without recourse.

The prospect of losing one of your positions do to a work injury can seem scary, which may lead you to consider trying to work one position while collecting workers’ compensation for the other position. There are situations where this may be allowed, but assuming you can do so can result in the forfeiture of your workers’ compensation benefits. Always talk to your attorney before you consider trying to work one job while collecting benefits for a work injury from another job, because it can backfire if you’re not careful.

The workers’ compensation process is complicated enough before you add in how it can be impacted by working multiple jobs. If you’ve been injured and you hold one, two, three or more jobs, make it a point to reach out to a workers’ compensation lawyer like Dean Margolis today.