Injured workers deserve compensation for their work-related injuries. The fact that you work for a limited period or only during part of the year should not jeopardize your coverage.
Pennsylvania’s definition of covered employees for Workers’ Compensation includes all kinds of workers, including seasonal and temporary workers. However, one kind of employee not usually covered is “casual” employees, who may only work a few shifts and have no ongoing relationship with their employer. Things are complicated regarding whose insurance covers “temp” workers, and calculating benefits for seasonal workers has a specific formula.
For help with your injury claim, call Cardamone Law at (267) 651-7945 and speak with our Certified Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Lawyers today.
Definition of “Employe” for Workers’ Comp in Pennsylvania
Under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Comp Act, all kinds of “employes” are covered. This is synonymous with “employee,” dropping the second E is just the way the lawmakers spelled it for this law. Generally, the definition includes any worker who performs services for someone else for pay.
Includes Temp Workers
Temporary workers are included in this definition since they are serving their employer. The only question is: Who is their employer? The temp agency or the company they are temporarily working for?
Those companies might have an agreement on that matter; otherwise, the temp agency is usually assumed to be the employer.
Includes Seasonal Workers
Just because a job is done only for part of the year doesn’t mean the workers aren’t “employees.” In fact, there are specific provisions for how to calculate lost earnings for seasonal workers, so they must be included.
Excludes Casual Employees
People who are only working a few shifts and have no ongoing relationship with the employer don’t qualify.
Excludes Certain Workers
Realtors, federal employees, and other particular jobs are excluded.
Excludes Independent Contractors
Independent contractors are considered self-employed, and so they serve themselves, not their client. They do not get Workers’ Comp coverage.
Factors to Consider
No matter what you call yourself or your type of job, there are a few factors to consider when determining whether you should be covered under Workers’ Compensation in Pennsylvania:
Paid for Services
If you are paid to serve your employer, you probably meet the qualifications. Unpaid volunteers aren’t covered.
Injured During Work
Your injuries should be covered as long as the injuries were work-related. This usually means that you were carrying out tasks to serve your employer when the accident happened.
Not an Independent Contractor
Independent contractors are not covered under Work Comp. Some people are hired on a temporary contract basis for short-term or seasonal work as “independent contractors” instead of “employees.”
The label is not as simple as checking whether they are paid with a W-2 or 1099. Instead, you have to look at who controls the worker’s time, place, and manner of work.
If that is the employer, the worker is usually an employee. If the worker controls those factors themselves, they may be an independent contractor.
Duration or Repetition of Work
Temporary workers inherently have short-term assignments, but if you work for a temp agency on a long-term basis, you are likely the temp agency’s employee.
With other temporary or seasonal workers, problems would arise if they were considered mere casual workers. However, people hired season after season, year after year at the same job are typically not “casual” employees, especially when the “season” lasts for weeks or months and not just a few days.
Calculating Average Weekly Wages for Temp and Seasonal Workers
When you calculate lost-wage benefits for Workers’ Comp, you start by finding a worker’s average weekly wage (AWW), then apply calculations and limitations. These calculations are often simple for fixed wages:
- Wages fixed by the week are the AWW.
- Wages fixed by the month are multiplied by 12 months then divided by 52 weeks for the AWW.
- Wages fixed by yearly salaries are divided by 52 weeks for the AWW.
Hourly Pay AWW
If you have irregular pay or work hourly, we break down the prior year (52 weeks) into 13-week quarters. We then take the three highest paid of those quarters, find the weekly average during those periods by dividing by 13, then average those three values. This gives us your AWW.
If you don’t have three 13-week quarters to look at, we just look at any one you do have. If you haven’t even worked 13 weeks yet, we just look at the expected wages you should have earned during that 13-week period.
Temp Worker AWW
Temp workers are usually paid by one of the procedures above, so you can use those rules to find your AWW.
Seasonal Workers AWW
With seasonal work, your work may be more spread out, making it unfair to check by quarters. Instead, your AWW is calculated by taking your total pay from all jobs in the past 12 months and dividing by 50. This gives a slightly better result than dividing by 52 weeks, allowing for some expected downtime between seasonal jobs.
FAQs for Temp and Seasonal Workers Getting Workers’ Comp
What Counts as a Seasonal Worker?
Seasonal workers include people whose jobs only exist during a particular time of year:
- Ski and snowboarding staff
- Pool staff and lifeguards
- Additional farmworkers hired during harvesting or planting seasons
- Additional retail staff hired for Black Friday and holiday shopping seasons.
It does not matter if you work one season or are called back for every season, you are still a seasonal employee and should be covered for injuries during that period you work.
Who Pays Workers’ Comp Claims for Temp Workers?
In most cases, temp workers are not actually employees at the site where they are working that day. Instead, they remain employees of the temp agency. The temp agency would then be the one to pay their Workers’ Comp claims.
However, there may be an agreement between the temp agency and the other workplace that shifts this burden.
Are Teachers Seasonal Workers?
Because teachers make a yearly salary, we can usually divide their salary by 52 to find their AWW. Summer months don’t change this or require us to use seasonal calculations instead.
However, the fact that they might be seasonal workers at another job during the summer might require us to use seasonal worker calculations. This potentially increases a teacher’s AWW beyond what you would expect.
Call Cardamone Law’s Pennsylvania Workers’ Comp Lawyers Today
For a free case review with our Pittsburgh, PA Workers’ Comp lawyers, call Cardamone Law at (267) 651-7945.
