When you’ve been injured due to someone else’s negligence, you may face physical pain, mental trauma, and lost wages. These financial challenges can push you to your limits, making an already difficult time even more painful.

That’s why it’s so important to work with an Alabama personal injury team who’s ready to fight for you. Attorney Aaron Luck at McPhillips Shinbaum helps clients like you seek justice from those who cause car accidents, falls, and other preventable incidents. Call us at 334-262-1911 to set up a time to meet.

Understanding What Constitutes Lost Wages

When you’re hurt because of someone else’s mistake, you will likely have to miss work. This means you’re not getting your usual paycheck, which can put significant strain on your family. Lost wages are not just the money you would’ve made from your regular hours at work. They also include any extra money you could have earned, like overtime, bonuses, or commissions.

Plus, if you had to use up your sick days or vacation time because you were injured, that counts as lost wages too. Those hours are there for you to use when you need or want to use them—not to be taken from you by another person’s negligence.

Calculating Lost Wages: The Basic Formula

Determining the amount of money you’ve missed out on because you were unable to work due to an injury involves a straightforward process, but it’s one that requires precision. To calculate your lost wages, you need to start by understanding how much you earn per hour. If you’re paid hourly, this step is already done for you. However, if your income is based on a yearly salary, you’ll divide your annual earnings by the total number of work hours in a year to find your hourly wage.

Once you know your hourly rate, the next step is to multiply it by the number of hours you were unable to work due to your injury. This gives you the basic calculation of your lost wages. If your hourly wage is $15 and you missed 40 hours of work, you multiply 15 by 40 to get $600. This figure represents the wages you lost while recovering.

The Importance of Proper Documentation

Having all your paperwork in order plays a critical role when it’s time to prove how much money you missed out on because you were injured. You’ll want to keep a careful record of everything related to your job that shows you couldn’t work because of your injury. This means saving pay stubs, detailed records of work hours you missed, and any emails or letters from your employer about your injury and time off.

Gathering these documents does more than showcase your lost earnings; it provides undeniable evidence that backs up your claim. Without this proof, it’s much harder to show the full extent of your lost wages.

In a nutshell, proper documentation is your best ally in ensuring you get compensated properly. It turns your claim from being just your own words into something that can be clearly seen and understood.

Considerations for Self-Employed Individuals

For those who are self-employed, figuring out lost wages after an injury can feel overwhelming. Unlike traditional employees, self-employed individuals don’t generally have a set salary or hourly wages to easily calculate what they’ve missed out on. Instead, you need to dig a bit deeper into your business finances. This involves looking at your average income before the injury and comparing it to what you were able to earn while you were recovering.

The key is to have detailed records of your business activities. This means keeping track of invoices, client contracts, and any other proof of the work you were scheduled to do but couldn’t because of your injury. Evidence of a consistent income pattern prior to your injury will strengthen your claim, showing clearly how the injury led to a financial loss for your business.

For self-employed individuals, demonstrating lost wages is about painting a clear picture of your usual earnings and how the injury disrupted this flow. It’s important to prepare and organize your financial documents well.

Start Your Claim with McPhillips Shinbaum

When you’re ready to move forward with your personal injury claim, the team at McPhillips Shinbaum is here for you. Get started right away by contacting us online or calling us at 334-262-1911.