Claims Adjudication Tune-Up (CAT-U)
December 2025 Edition
Welcome to Self-Insurance’s (SI) Claims Adjudication Tune-Up (CAT-U) newsletter. This is where the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) shares best practices and information, as well as highlight opportunities for improvement. The focus of this month’s edition of CAT-U is choosing a representative period to calculate wages.
Legal Corner
Washington Administrative Code WAC 296-14-520 Why is it important to establish the worker's monthly wage?
The department or self-insurer is required to establish a monthly wage that fairly and reasonably reflects workers' lost wages from all employment at the time of injury or date of disease manifestation…
Revised Code of Washington RCW 51.08.178 "Wages”- Monthly wages as basis of compensation—Computation thereof.
(1) …the number of hours the worker is normally employed shall be determined by the
department in a fair and reasonable manner…
(2) In cases where (a) the worker's employment is exclusively seasonal… the monthly
wage shall be determined by dividing by twelve the total wages earned, including
overtime, from all employment in any twelve successive calendar months preceding
the injury which fairly represent the claimant's employment pattern.
Take away: While 12 continuous months is used as the representative period for sub 2 workers, for sub 1 workers, L&I has determined a representative period of three months is appropriate in most cases. In either case, the representative period must be prior to and not include the date of injury.
News You Can Use
Case Law / Significant decision – In re Jeremy T. Parsons, BIIA Dec., 19 22500 (2021)
Summary: L&I issued an order setting Mr. Parsons’ monthly wage, which the employer appealed. It is best practice to use a representative period immediately preceding the date of injury. In Mr. Parsons’ case, that period included a period he was on strike. Because of this, the department used a different representative period which didn't include a period he was not working. The Board determined the department was correct and affirmed the order.
Claim impact: The representative period used to calculate wages should fairly represent the worker’s employment pattern. This includes using a period that doesn’t have gaps in pay. For example, leave without pay, paid family/medical leave, strikes, etc.
Trainer Trivia
November Question: Leaves on trees survive storms, hot weather, and incessant rain. So why do they all fall off in autumn?
Answer: Trees need to lose their leaves to survive winter. Being leafless helps them conserve water and reabsorb nutrients. The process is triggered by the shortening days and cooler temperatures, which signal the need for the plant to shut down its energy-generating operations. Fall leaves don’t fall, they’re pushed!
December Question: The first text message was sent in December of what year?
More reading/resources:
Reminders/tips from the SI teams:
Remember, in cases where the wage cannot be reasonably and fairly determined, and a worker has a contract of hire, the contract should be used.
Remember to include bonuses in the 12 months immediately preceding the injury, regardless of the representative period used.
For more information, email: SITrainerQuestions@Lni.wa.gov
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