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Compensation for Death under Florida’s Workers’ Compensation Law

Workers sometimes get hurt on the job and the injuries can range in severity. Some injured workers will recover, but others may not. A work-related accident can result in death, which leaves the family not only mourning the loss of a loved one, but also wondering how they are going to pay the bills with the loss of income.

Unfortunately, construction workers, carpenters, welders, electricians, plumbers, unskilled laborers and many other workers are injured so severely that the injury eventually leads to death. Fatal injuries that occur on the job may be caused by:

• Crane accidents
• Heavy machinery or equipment
• Dangerous work environments
• Falls
• Negligence of other workers
• Hazards associated with that particular line of work

Florida’s Workers’ Compensation Law provides benefits for injured workers in the form of weekly compensation at a percentage of the worker’s salary and medical care. This money is crucial to injured workers as their family relies on the income to pay the mortgage, buy groceries and cover household bills. If a worker died due to an accident that occurred during work, Florida’s Workers’ Compensation Law provides benefits to the surviving spouse and/or dependents.

Under the law, if the death results within 1 year of the accident or follows continuous disability caused by the accident within 5 years, the employer must pay actual funeral expenses not exceeding $7,500. The employer is required to pay the funeral expenses within 14 days of receiving the bill. In addition, Florida’s Workers’ Compensation Law requires employers to pay a percentage of the average weekly wages of the deceased worker. The amount paid should not be more than $150,000, but should also not exceed 66 2/3% of the average salary for all dependents or individuals entitled to compensation.

The amount in which surviving dependents are entitled is as follows:

• If the worker was married, but did not have children, the spouse should receive 50% of the average weekly salary.

• If the worker was married with children, the amount that must be paid includes 50% of the average weekly salary to the spouse and an additional 16 2/3% to the children.

• If the worker was not married, but had children, each child will receive 33 1/3% of the average weekly salary.

• The worker’s parents may receive 25% paid to each, during the continuance of dependency.

• Each dependent brother, sister and grandchild is entitled to 15% of the average weekly salary.

Insurance companies can be challenging to work with and may make it difficult to collect workers’ compensation benefits. If you have lost a loved one due to a work-related injury, contact David Benenfeld at (866) 943-5766.

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FAQs

Workers' Compensation

• Q: When I am injured on the job, am I entitled to receive Workers' Compensation benefits?
• Q: If I do get hurt on the job, what must I do to protect my rights under Workers' Compensation law?
• Q: What happens if my employer refuses to report my incident to the Workers' Compensation Insurance Company, or refuses to provide me with an authorized medical provider or refuses to pay me for the time that I missed from work due to the incident?

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