What Benefits Am I Entitled To When I Am Hurt At Work In Minnesota?

If you have a work-related injury in Minnesota, you are entitled to four basic benefits. These include wage loss benefits, medical benefits, vocational rehabilitation services, and permanent partial disability benefits.

Wage loss benefits are paid either as temporary total disability benefits, temporary partial disability benefits, or permanent total disability benefits. Temporary total disability benefits are payable when you cannot work for medical reasons, or you can work with restrictions, but your employer does not have work for you. Temporary total disability benefits are paid at two-thirds of your weekly wage.

Temporary partial disability benefits are payable when you are working, but at a wage loss, such as if you are working part time or at a reduced wage. Temporary partial disability benefits are two thirds of the difference between your wage when you were injured and your reduced wage. Permanent partial disability benefits are paid until at least age 67 if it is determined that you are not able to find gainful employment for medical and/or vocational reasons.

Medical benefits include everything for mileage and prescriptions to MRIs and surgery. All medical treatment that is related to your work injury is forever covered by workers’ compensation, whether you are working for the same employer, working somewhere else, or not working at all.

Vocational rehabilitation services involve assistance in returning to work, either with your date of injury employer or another employer. Those services include everything from medical management, to communicating with your employer about restrictions to job placement services to retraining. This benefit is especially helpful to workers’ who sustain career-ending injuries.

Permanent partial disability benefits are payment to an injured worker for loss of function. If you have a permanent injury to a body part, your doctor will assign you a permanency rating, which is a percentage, as set forth by the permanency schedule. That rating then translates to a dollar amount and is meant to compensate you for loss of full function of that body part.

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