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Wage-loss claims are an important element of Part E of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA).

For every wage loss claim, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) looks at the income amount that the worker was making prior to the diagnosis of their accepted condition. The DOL claims examiner compares that earned income to the amount of money that the worker earned in subsequent years, to the extent that the amount is less than 75% of the amount that the worker had earned prior to the diagnosis of their condition. This change begins at the time when the condition caused the worker to lose wages. The date of first instance wage loss is important here.

The measurement is to compare prior years' earnings with that years' earnings. If the earnings are less than 75% of what the worker had earned prior to their first wage loss associated with the accepted claim, that worker receives $10,000 for that year of wage loss.

Wage loss compensation does not fully compensate the worker for the wages that were lost---it is more of a replacement income. If the new income amount is 75% less than the pre- wage-loss year, then the worker receives $10,000. If the total amount of the wage-loss is more than 50% less than the year prior, then the total wage loss for that year is $15,000.

These calculations are performed as the Department of Labor obtains earnings records from the Social Security Administration. Those earnings records are prepared based on quarterly reporting. They look at the last three years of earnings prior to the first wage-loss. To calculate an annual wage, twelve quarters of wages are then divided by twelve and then, in turn, by three in order to come with a monthly wage. The average annual wage is then compared to the annual wage that the worker earned after her first period of wage loss.

Very often we speak to employees who work until they can no longer work due to their illness and then will retire and not work at all subsequent to the first year of wage loss. In turn, sometimes the first year of wage loss is less than 75% but more than 50%. Therefore, the worker will receive $10,000 in compensation, and then thereafter each year would be no income and that would mean $15,000 paid per year.

Wage loss is only paid during those years prior to the social security retirement age. In the earlier years, the retirement age was 65. Subsequent to that, the retirement age is a "moving target." The DOL calculates the appropriate retirement age based on information from the Social Security Administration. That age is the same whether or not you decided to receive early social security (such that you started receiving it at 62, etc.). The relevant age is the social security retirement age.

For example, a worker who reached age 60 and stops working after being diagnosed with lung cancer, and the lung cancer and the lung cancer prevents her from working after she leaves work at age 60, would then become eligible for wage-loss from 60-65 or maybe from 60-67, depending on that specific employee’s social security retirement age.

Under the EEOICPA, wage-loss claims apply to all uranium mine workers, all uranium mill workers, and all uranium ore transporters whose terms are accepted within the program. Wage-loss also applies to nuclear weapons manufacturing industry workers under EEOICPA.

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