Second Jobs and Concurrent Employment: How It Affects Your Wage Loss Benefits

Worked Two Jobs? You May Be Owed More Than You Think

Here's a benefit that far too many injured workers—and even some insurers—overlook: if you held more than one job when you were injured, Pennsylvania lets you combine the wages from all of them to calculate your workers' compensation benefits. This is called concurrent employment, and getting it right can dramatically increase your weekly checks.

How Concurrent Employment Works

Your wage-loss benefits are based on your Average Weekly Wage (AWW). When you have concurrent employment, your AWW should reflect the total of what you were earning across all jobs—not just the one where you got hurt. For example, if you earned $600/week at your main job and $300/week at a second job, your benefits should generally be calculated on roughly $900/week, not $600.

That difference can mean hundreds of dollars more per week, for months or years.

Why This Gets Missed

• Workers assume only the job where they were injured counts.
• Insurers calculate AWW off a single employer's records and never ask about other jobs.
• The second job is part-time, seasonal, or gig work and gets forgotten.
• The Statement of Wages the insurer files simply omits it.

Because the insurer usually only sees payroll from the employer where you were hurt, you have to raise concurrent employment—or it's silently left out.

What Counts

Generally, concurrent employment means you were actually employed at more than one job at the time of injury. Both employments are typically counted when combining wages. The rules have nuances (for example, how self-employment or truly separate ventures are treated), which is why documentation and legal review matter.

Why It Matters After a Brain Injury

A brain injury can knock you out of every job you held, not just one. If your benefits are based on only one paycheck, you're being under-compensated for a loss that hit your whole livelihood.

What to Do

• Tell your lawyer about every job you held when injured.
• Gather pay records from all employers for the year before the injury.
• Check the AWW the insurer used—if it only reflects one job, it may be wrong.

How We Help

Certified Workers' Compensation Specialist Michael Cardamone makes sure every source of wages is counted, so your benefits reflect your true earnings. If a third party caused your injury, we coordinate that claim with heavyweight personal injury colleagues.

Had a Second Job When You Got Hurt? Call Us—Free

You may be owed more than the insurer calculated. Call (833) 898-4587—free, confidential, 24/7, and no fee unless we win.