Coach's concurrent employment increases average weekly wage

In Kentucky, if a worker's supervisor has knowledge of her concurrent employment, her AWW should include her wages from the second job.

Case name: Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Turner, No. 2011-CA-000493-WC (Ky. Ct. App. 11/23/11, unpublished).

Ruling: In an unpublished decision, the Kentucky Court of Appeals held that a coach's average weekly wage should include her wages from a second job.

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What it means: In Kentucky, if a worker's supervisor has knowledge of her concurrent employment, her AWW should include her wages from the second job.

Summary: A coach and gymnastics instructor was spotting a gymnast who was performing gymnastics on the parallel bars. When the gymnast let go, the coach saw she was going to hit her head on the ground. The coach reached in to prevent this from happening. The gymnast's legs went to the side and hit the coach in the forehead, jerking her head backward. The coach felt immediate neck and arm pain. The next day, she underwent a cervical fusion. When she returned to work, she could no longer perform hands-on activities.

At the same time, she held another job as a substitute teacher's assistant. The head gymnastics coach knew she had a second job. She worked the same number of hours at her teaching job before the injury as she did after the injury, but she worked fewer hours at her coaching job after her injury. The uninsured employers' fund argued that the coach's average weekly wage should only include her wages from the employer she was working for at the time of her injury. The Kentucky Court of Appeals held that her AWW should include her wages from her concurrent employment as a teacher.

The court said that the coach's wages from her teaching job should be included in her AWW because her supervisor had knowledge of her second job. The fund argued that if her teaching salary would be included in her AWW, she could not be awarded a three multiplier on her concurrent employment that was unaffected by her injury. The court disagreed. The coach could not continue working as a gymnastics instructor after her injury. Therefore, it was appropriate to apply a three multiplier. Nothing in the statute provided procedures allowing for primary and secondary employment.

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January 19, 2012

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