Compensation for Work-Related Hearing Loss
Hearing loss is treated as a gradually occurring injury under Tennessee’s workers’ compensation laws. A gradually occurring injury has been described by the courts as a new injury each day at work; therefore, employees seeking compensation for hearing loss do not have to prove that they provided their employer with notice UNTIL they know or should know that their injury was caused by occupational noise exposure.
Typically, employees must notify their employer of a hearing loss personal injury in TN upon diagnosis by a medical doctor of hearing loss or tinnitus.
Hearing loss is compensated as a permanent partial disability under the workers’ compensation schedule of benefits. The award for complete permanent loss of hearing in both ears is sixty-six and two-thirds percent (66 2/3%) of the average weekly wages during one hundred fifty (150) weeks.
For permanent partial hearing loss, an employee is compensated in relation to an assessment of anatomical impairment and vocational disability. Anatomical impairment is assessed by a medical doctor and expressed as a percentage of “binaural hearing” loss.
Vocational disability is assessed based on such factors as the employee's age, education, job skills and training, the extent and duration of anatomical impairment, local job opportunities, and the employee's capacity to work at the kinds of employment available to one in the employee's disabled condition. However, just because an employee returns to his former employment without reduction in pay or job responsibilities does not mean he or she cannot receive compensation for hearing loss.
Every day in Tennessee, hearing loss injuries go uncompensated. One reason is because workers discover the injury long after ending their employment. Another reason is that a worker discovers hearing loss prior to employment, the hearing loss is aggravated, but the employee fails to seek compensation under the false belief that the employer is not responsible for pre-existing injuries.
Even if a substantial amount of time has expired since ending your employment or you experienced hearing loss prior to working for the employer, you can still receive compensation for your hearing loss. To find out more, call the occupation hearing loss attorneys and Knoxville workers' compensation lawyers at Baker Associates at 866-853-2888.
