Sometimes injuries at work are bad enough that the employee is unable to go back to their same job. To compensate for their loss of earning capacity they can be awarded a wage differential award to make up for potential wages lost. A wage differential award is given when an employee is incapacitated so much that they cannot work in their previous job, and they are limited in the future wages they can earn because of it. One claimant in Illinois sought benefits like this even though she was able to stay with her company in a new position that fit her needs and paid her the same wages as before her injury, even though it was a job that traditionally would have paid her lower wages.

Kathy Jenkins was a stationary engineer for the Jackson Park Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago, IL. She worked on maintenance problems around the facilities and in October of 2005 she hurt her neck, lower back and knee while she was trying to get into a dark locked office through the window and fell. Because of her injuries she could no longer do her job as a stationary engineer; she was permanently and partially disabled. She received medical benefits, temporary total disability benefits and other penalties in 2006.

Her employer allowed her to work as a public safety officer which was a job she was able to do, and she earned the same as what she would have as a stationary engineer, even though traditional public safety officers earned far less.

Even though she was employed in another equally paying job, she still said that she was entitled to a wage differential award. Her employer said she was entitled to the alternative compensation for this kind of limitation in the form of a percentage loss of the person as a whole. The initial arbitrator ruled against Jenkins since her job paid her the same as her old job and her wages had not been impaired.

She appealed to the Workers’ Compensation Commission, who decided that since she did not have a loss in wages she was not eligible for an award either. By this time Jenkins had been fired by Jackson Park and she appealed the decision to the Circuit Court who remanded it back to the commission. They awarded her a wage differential award which the employer appealed and the case landed in the state’s 1^st District Court of Appeals.

They determined that Jenkins was earning far more than other safety officers and matching her old wages, but given her limitations if she worked anywhere else she would not earn nearly as much. She was earning $23.61 an hour and the typical Jackson Park safety officer wages were $8 to $10 an hour. At this specific job her wages were inflated but if she were hired by another employer for a similar job her wages could decrease dramatically, and so they awarded her a wage-differential award. They said she suffered a debilitating injury and even though she had not suffered a wage loss because of it at that specific job, her true earning capacity out in the marketplace was hindered.