Maryland: Sole Proprietor’s AWW Computed on Net Profit, Not Gross Receipts

In a matter of first impression, the Court of Appeals of Maryland held that average weekly wage of a sole proprietor who elects coverage under the Maryland Workers’ Compensation Act should be calculated based upon the sole proprietorship’s net profit—not his or her gross income or gross receipts. Sole proprietorship’s net profit is best approximation of earnings that sole proprietor actually takes home because net profit does not include sole proprietorship’s business costs and expenses. According, the Commission was correct in calculating the proprietor’s AWW based on his net profit in 2011, the year in which he sustained his injury.

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 Long v. Injured Workers’ Ins. Fund, 2016 Md. LEXIS 362 (June 22, 2016)

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

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

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