North Carolina: Commission Correctly Computed Average Weekly Wage of Symphony Violinist

Where a violinist, employed by the Charlotte Symphony, earned $39,412.83 for the Symphony’s regular 36-week season (September through May) and earned an additional $1,080 per week for eight summer weeks performing for the Chautauqua (N.Y.) Symphony, her average weekly wage should be computed using the “fifth” method described in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-2(5), pursuant to which the Commission resorts to a method that most nearly approximates the amount which the injured employee would have earned were it not for the injury. Accordingly, the Commission did not err when it took her earnings for the 52 weeks prior to the injury and divided that sum by 52. Citing Conyers v. New Hanover Cty. Schools, 188 N.C. App. 253, 654 S.E.2d 745, 750 (2008), the Court said the employee’s contention that the Commission should have divided her Charlotte Symphony earnings by 36 could not be sustained under the statute.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Frank v. Charlotte Symphony, 2017 N.C. App. LEXIS 745 (Sept. 5, 2017)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 93.01.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law