ABA Family Legal Guide

Law and the Workplace

On the Job

Workers' Compensation

What types of injuries are compensable under workers' compensation?

Injuries and illnesses that "arise out of and in the course of employment" are compensable. This means that there must be some connection between an employment requirement and the cause of the injury. Injuries arising from an automobile accident that occurs on public streets during the commute to work is not compensable, but the injuries of a traveling salesperson who is in an accident while on her way to a sales call would be compensable. (Injuries incurred by an employee in an auto accident in the employer's parking lot might also be compensable.) Some examples of compensable injuries are injuries caused by defective machinery, fires or explosions at work, repeated lifting of heavy equipment, or slipping on an oily floor surface at work.

Illnesses that are caused by working conditions, where the job presents a risk of contracting the illness that is greater than the normal risks of everyday life, are also compensable. So a coal miner who contracts black lung disease would be eligible for compensation. However, if a clerical worker who works in an office with coworkers who smoke contracts emphysema from secondhand smoke, her illness probably would not be compensable. The reasoning is that there is nothing peculiar about her job that increased the risk of contracting emphysema.