New Jersey's maximum temporary disability rate dropped for 2011 to $792 per week. That means that any worker making more than $1,131 per week (gross) is capped at this maximum temporary disability wage compensation.
This is a drop of two dollars ($2) from last year's maximum rate ($794).
Despite this drop, New Jersey's Compensation Rating and Inspection Bureau (NJ CRIB) announced a 1% rate hike. CRIB blames the 1% increase in rate on rising medical costs as a component of workers' compensation premiums.

Despite the recession, WC claims filed in New Jersey have been surprisingly steady. So why is New Jersey getting eight new comp judges, most of whom have never stepped foot in WC court?
New Jersey’s manufacturing, construction, farm, and trade employment has shrunk every year for the past two decades. The drop in claim petitions filed has followed this trend over the past two decades: from 53,637 new claim petitions filed in 1990 to only 35,566 new formal claim petitions filed in 2007.
Despite the worsening recession, 2009 saw about 35,000 new claims filed - which is in line with 2008’s filings. The gross number of filed claim petitions is likely to fall in 2009-2010, but this is more likely indicative of the general trend of job loss in high-risk industries like manufacturing and construction.
The big question is - with the population of new claims slowly but steadily declining year over year - and with that decline projected to continue, why did outgoing Governor Corzine appoint eight new WC judges?

The answer is: Politics as usual. Read More...

In September the New York WCB released data on the 45,000 workers who filed 9/11-related claims and special affidavits. The 'special affidavits' are not claims but rather "placeholders" for future claims, allowing the affiants to bring workers' comp cases at a later date, preserving their rights to benefits.
Nearly 14,000 claims are currently pending before the Board. Of these active claims, about 50% are for victims of the attacks and about 40% are rescue and clean-up workers.
Carriers have challenged about 40% of the WTC cases, which is approximately double the rate of other claims. 90% of the claims for rescue and clean-up workers are for respiratory-related conditions.

Every year the State of New Jersey Department of Labor issues a new ‘temporary disability rate.’ The rate for 2010 will be $794 per week. The rate for 2009 was $773 per week. To put that another way: according to the State of New Jersey, the average worker employed in New Jersey saw real wage growth averaging 3%.
Every year this rate increases. I have written on this topic every year for the last five years - how does this state TDB rate rise every year? The answer is: because the TDB rate is not really tied to any objective economic indicator. For example, in 2008 the Federal Government (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,)the median weekly earnings of all full-time workers in New Jersey was $948.00 per week. If correct, that would give rise to a New Jersey State TDB rate of only $655 per week for 2008. In New Jersey, the maximum rate of temporary disability for 2008 was $742.00 per week.
As I have written before, the way the Feds and the State calculate ‘average weekly wage’ is different with the net effect that the NJ State Temporary Total disability rates are artificially high.
How much higher? In 2008 New Jersey calculation method yielded a weekly wage estimate that was 9% greater than the Federal estimate of wages.
Presuming that the New Jersey figures are correct for rate of growth, TDB rates for 2009 are too high by approximately $111.00 per week. This is calculated by using the Federal figures for reported wages for 2008 and using New Jersey’s growth factor.
I believe that even New Jersey’s growth factor (3%) is too high: the state has historic levels of unemployment and downward wage pressure is reported in every industry.
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