Loss of Earning Power vs. Total Disability: What the Labor Market Survey Means for You

When the Insurer Says You "Can Work"

At some point, many injured workers get a letter or a call built around one idea: you're not totally disabled anymore, so your benefits should drop. The insurer supports this with two tools—an Earning Power Assessment (EPA) and a Labor Market Survey (LMS). Understanding what these are, and how they're used, is the key to protecting your wage-loss checks after a brain injury.

Total vs. Partial Disability

• Total disability means you cannot earn wages because of your work injury; your benefits reflect that full wage loss.
• Partial disability means you're deemed able to earn something, so benefits are reduced to the difference between your pre-injury wage and your assumed earning capacity.

The insurer's goal with an EPA/LMS is usually to move you from total to partial—cutting your check and starting the 500-week partial-disability clock.

What a Labor Market Survey Actually Does

In an EPA, a vocational expert reviews your restrictions, education, and work history, then a Labor Market Survey identifies jobs supposedly available to you in your area that fit those restrictions. The insurer then argues you could earn those wages—even if you never actually got hired. Your benefits can be modified based on that theoretical earning power.

Why This Is So Problematic After a Brain Injury

Labor Market Surveys often rest on physical restrictions and miss the true impact of a TBI:

• Jobs are labeled "sedentary" or "light" as if that's the only barrier—ignoring that a brain injury impairs concentration, memory, multitasking, and stamina.
• The "available" jobs may require cognitive abilities you no longer have.
• The survey may list jobs that aren't genuinely open, aren't within commuting range, or don't actually accommodate your real limitations.

A job you can't cognitively perform is not real earning power—but the insurer will present it as if it is.

How to Fight an EPA/LMS

• Make sure your restrictions capture the cognitive reality, not just lifting limits.
• Challenge the suitability of each identified job against your true abilities.
• Present treating-physician and neuropsychological evidence about function.
• Scrutinize the vocational expert's assumptions—they're often beatable on cross-examination.

How We Help

Certified Workers' Compensation Specialist Michael Cardamone takes on Earning Power Assessments and Labor Market Surveys directly—exposing when a paper "job" ignores the disabling effects of a brain injury—to protect your total-disability status and your checks. If a third party caused your injury, we coordinate that claim with heavyweight personal injury colleagues.

Got an Earning-Power Letter? Don't Let Your Check Drop—Call Free

Before your benefits are reduced based on jobs you can't really do, talk to us. Call (833) 898-4587—free, confidential, 24/7, and no fee unless we win.