Getting injured on the job is about more than just you or your career. It impacts your entire family. If you’re seriously or even fatally injured, what are they going to do?
After all, the average cost of raising a child clocks in at about $13,000 per year. A mortgage payment alone averages about $1,500 per month. These are very real costs that your family faces, and they do not stop just because you got injured.
The drastic impact of lost wages
When people think of the cost of a workplace injury, they often consider the cost of medical bills. And that cost could be dramatic. Some serious injuries run up medical bills in the millions.
But taking on medical debt is only part of the problem, and it’s often one that you don’t really have to deal with until the future, anyway. Your lost wages, on the other hand, are an instant financial challenge. The first week that you miss a paycheck could be all that it takes to mean you’re behind on that mortgage or struggling to make ends meet.
How much money do your family have saved for this type of emergency? If you can’t go back to work for months, can they realistically pay the bills? Or, as you recover, is your entire family going to run into massive financial hurdles that they can’t overcome?
The role of workers’ comp
The good news is that workers’ compensation addresses both areas: medical bills and lost wages. It doesn’t just keep you from falling into overwhelming medical debt. It also helps to keep the lights on while you heal. It helps to keep your family in a stable, healthy living situation by covering at least a portion of your lost wages until you can get back to work yourself.
As such, if you have been hurt on the job, it’s critical for you to look into all of your legal options. You need proper compensation and you need to know how to get it as quickly as possible.