"I have two jobs."

Why it matters so much

Every wage-based benefit runs off your average weekly earnings:

• Temporary disability — two-thirds of average weekly earnings
• Total permanent disability at 100% — paid at the temporary disability rate, for life
• Death benefits — paid at the temporary disability rate
• The life pension — computed on average weekly earnings, though capped at $515.38

A worker earning $700 at one job and $500 at another has average weekly earnings of $1,200, not $700. Two-thirds of $1,200 is $800 per week. Two-thirds of $700 is $467.

That is $333 a week — over $17,000 a year — and in a total disability case it is a lifetime difference.

The rule

§ 4453(c)(4): where the employment is for less than 30 hours per week, or where the ordinary methods "cannot reasonably and fairly be applied," average weekly earnings are taken at 100% of the sum that reasonably represents the average weekly earning capacity of the injured worker at the time of injury — "due consideration being given to his or her actual earnings from all sources and employments."

The concurrent employment has to be established. It is not automatic, and nobody will ask.

What to provide, immediately

• Pay stubs from every job for the period before the injury
• W-2s or 1099s for the prior year
• Tax returns, which capture self-employment income
• Schedules showing hours at each job
• Bank deposit records where a job paid cash

Self-employment and side income count too, where they represent real earning capacity.

And gig work counts — rideshare, delivery, and platform work income are earnings, and worth documenting even where the classification of that work is itself contested.

The related question nobody asks

If your injury stops you from doing your second job as well, that loss is part of your disability. Wage loss and vocational consequences are evaluated on your whole earning capacity, not on the one employer whose insurer is paying.

And the job displacement voucher and return-to-work analysis should reflect what you actually did for a living — which, for a great many people in Los Angeles, is more than one thing. The voucher.