Gulfport Longshore Average Weekly Wage

The gulfport longshore average weekly wage calculation is not a formality. It is the number that determines every dollar of every benefit you receive under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act for the entire life of your claim. Your temporary disability payments are two-thirds of it. Your permanent disability compensation is two-thirds of it multiplied by your impairment rating weeks. Your lump sum settlement is discounted against the present value of it. The carrier calculates your average weekly wage in a way that makes it as low as possible. They do this because a lower AWW means lower benefits on every benefit type simultaneously — a compounding effect that can reduce your total recovery by tens of thousands of dollars on a serious injury. The accountant performing your shoulder surgery is not the answer. Neither is the TV lawyer who has never argued an AWW dispute in a federal LHWCA proceeding.

How The LHWCA Average Weekly Wage Is Calculated For Halter Marine And Port Of Gulfport Workers

Section 910 of the LHWCA provides three methods for calculating average weekly wage depending on the worker’s employment pattern in the 52 weeks preceding the injury. For a Halter Marine production worker or Port of Gulfport longshore worker with consistent full-time employment during that period, the standard calculation uses the total wages earned in the 52 weeks divided by the number of weeks actually worked. That calculation includes not just base hourly wages but also overtime, shift differentials, hazard pay, and other compensation that is part of the regular wage package.

The carrier will calculate your AWW in the way that produces the lowest number. If you had any period of reduced work during the 52-week period — a week of vacation, a week of sick leave, a period when weather or a project gap reduced your hours — the carrier will use a calculation method that incorporates those reduced weeks to drag the average down. If your wage package includes overtime that varies week to week, the carrier will argue for a calculation that treats your high-overtime weeks as exceptional rather than typical, reducing the average.

The LHWCA Section 910 methodology has three calculation options specifically designed to produce a fair result for workers with irregular earnings patterns. Understanding which method applies to your specific work history and earnings pattern, and presenting that analysis in a way that holds up at hearing, requires someone who has made this argument in front of a federal Administrative Law Judge. It is not a calculation anyone figures out from reading the statute for the first time in your case.

What Gets Included In The Halter Marine Average Weekly Wage Calculation

For Halter Marine production workers, the AWW calculation should include base hourly wages at the regular rate, overtime pay at the applicable premium rate, shift differential pay for second and third shift work, production bonuses that are part of the regular compensation structure, and any other compensation that is a regular part of the employment relationship. What the carrier may try to exclude are payments they characterize as irregular, exceptional, or unrelated to the regular work relationship.

A Halter Marine welder who regularly works 50 to 55 hours per week because the vessel construction schedule requires it has a true average weekly wage that reflects those overtime hours. The carrier’s argument that the overtime was project-specific and therefore should be discounted from the AWW is an argument that reduces the benefit rate on every benefit type for the life of the claim. Defeating that argument requires documentation of the employment history that establishes the overtime as a regular feature of the work rather than an exceptional occurrence, and a lawyer who knows how to present that case at the OWCP district office and at formal hearing.

The Compounding Effect Of An Incorrect AWW On Your Gulfport Longshore Claim

Because the AWW is the base number for every benefit calculation under the LHWCA, an error in the AWW compounds across the entire claim. Consider a Halter Marine worker whose true AWW including regular overtime is $1,600 per week. The carrier calculates the AWW at $1,200 by excluding overtime. The weekly TTD benefit is $400 per week lower than it should be. Over a six-month TTD period that is $10,400.00 in underpaid temporary benefits. The permanent disability compensation, calculated as a percentage of the AWW times the schedule weeks, is proportionally reduced for the life of the permanent impairment award. The lump sum settlement offer is based on the reduced AWW and reflects the lower calculation throughout. The total impact of that $400 per week AWW error on a significant permanent impairment claim can easily exceed $50,000.00.

The carrier does not make the AWW calculation error accidentally. They make it deliberately and they defend it vigorously because the financial stakes justify the defense. A lawyer who has never argued an AWW dispute in a federal LHWCA proceeding does not know what documents to gather, what legal arguments to make, or how the judges in the Covington district typically resolve these disputes. The Gulfport longshore lawyer who has been in that room knows all of it. The Mississippi longshore lawyer page covers the statewide framework. Get the free book below before the carrier’s AWW calculation becomes the established number in your case.

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