If you have to take some time off from work because of an injury, then it’s natural you will want to look into workers’ compensation. It’s one of the protections in place for workers in the United States. However, even if you have a general idea of this concept, you may know little about its finer points.

Your employer must file a workers’ comp claim for you if you’re going to collect money through this type of a policy. Let’s take some time now to discuss the whole concept in more detail.

What Does Workers’ Comp Mean?

Workers’ comp means workers’ compensation insurance. It’s a type of insurance policy that most employers must carry.

If an employee injures themselves while on the job, then generally, they can collect workers’ comp. It’s in place to help them stay afloat until such time as they can return to work and resume their previous duties.

Must All Employers Have It?

Most employers need to carry workers’ compensation insurance. Every state has laws on the books that mention this. Furthermore, each state will usually have requirements regarding the minimum amount per employee that an employer must carry.

However, not every employer must carry it. For instance, let’s say that you employ yourself. Maybe you’re a freelance who works as a copywriter or in IT.

You don’t need to carry workers’ comp if you have only yourself as an employee. Technically, you’re a business, but since you only employee one person, yourself, you can get around these laws.

In certain other rare instances, you can also skirt these laws. Generally, though, every employer must carry workers’ comp as their state’s laws dictate.

We should also mention at this point that while every state has laws that govern workers’ comp and how much each employer must have, those laws vary state by state. Individual states have workers’ comp laws in place, and not the federal government.

How Can You Determine Whether You Are Eligible?

You will need to talk to your employer about whether you’re eligible. You might think you are, but they will know the finer details of their workers’ comp policy, since presumably, they purchased it.

For the most part, you can consider yourself eligible if you hurt yourself while on the job. For instance, if you injure yourself while on the floor of a warehouse where your company manufactures and packages its products, then you can probably collect workers’ comp.

You can also probably collect it if you’re driving a vehicle for your company and you’re on company time. If another car plows into you and the crash injures you, then you can probably tell your employer, and they can look into getting you the money you’re due while you’re recovering.

In some instances, there’s a prohibition against you collecting workers’ comp if you’re intoxicated at the time of the accident. For instance, if you chugged a few beers in the bathroom while you’re on the clock, and then you go back out into the warehouse and you drop a pallet on yourself by accident, then maybe you can’t collect workers’ comp.

In such instances, though, your boss will probably have to prove your intoxication to try to stop you from collecting workers’ compensation. That’s often difficult, unless another employee saw you using drugs or ingesting alcohol while on the premises.

Can You File for It on Your Own?

You may also want to know whether you can file for workers’ compensation on your own behalf. Normally, that’s not the case.

Your boss will have to do it for you. That’s why, if you want to collect workers’ comp, it’s vital that you tell your boss or supervisor about an injury you sustained right after it happens.

Maybe you can’t tell them about it right away if you have to go to a hospital. However, you should tell them the details of what happened after you get medical treatment.

If you delay, then maybe you won’t have the details fresh in your mind. Some individuals feel that they should remain stoic and continue working through an injury.

That’s usually a mistake. If you do that, then you might make the injury worse, and maybe you can’t collect workers’ comp, either.

Do You Get Your Full Paycheck Amount?

In most cases, you won’t get your full paycheck amount through workers’ comp. You might get about 80% of it, on average, though that varies. You might get less or more depending on the details of the policy your boss has and various other factors.

It might frustrate you that you’re not getting your full paycheck amount. However, at least you’re getting something while you’re recovering. The worker protections in this country sometimes seem lacking when you look at what other first-world countries have, but at least with workers’ comp, you get something.

How Long Can You Collect Money Through Workers’ Comp?

You will also need to look into how long you can collect workers’ comp if you injure yourself while on the job and you start to collect it. Like any insurance company, the one that issued the workers’ comp policy your boss has will start to check up on you almost immediately. They don’t want you to keep collecting checks through that policy any longer than necessary.

That’s because insurance companies have for-profit status. They will pay you through a policy if they have to, but if they can get you back on the job as quickly as they can, their representatives will certainly try to make that happen.

If you’re taking some time off and recovering while collecting workers’ comp, you can expect regular phone calls from the insurance company. They might demand medical documents from your doctor indicating that you can’t come back to work yet.

Hopefully, you will recover relatively quickly. That way, you can get the insurance company off your back, and you can start getting your full paycheck again too.