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Employers use labor market surveys to reduce workers’ compensation benefits. However, a labor market survey is a theoretical analysis and does not typically reflect an injured worker’s situation. A labor market survey does not consider whether a worker has ever performed the type of work suggested by the survey. It also does not consider whether the jobs are actually available or the employer is actually willing to hire. Recent decisions by Pennsylvania courts have made it much easier for employers to prove earning potential and decrease benefits.

Labor market surveys are used to reduce weekly benefit amount to 2/3 (66.7%) of the difference between the average weekly wage at time of injury and the earning capacity provided by the employer’s vocational expert who surveys the open and available employment positions in a worker’s geographic region that fits her vocational abilities, age, education, residual productive abilities and medical limitations as determined later by an Administrative Law Judge.

Prior to conducting a labor market survey, an insurance carrier files and provides the insured worker with a Notice of Ability to Return to Work listing the physician who authorized the work release, the extent of the release, and the underlying medical reasons for its issuance. The worker is then interviewed as part of this assessment with the resulting information compiled into a labor market survey, which is used as the basis for a petition to modify or terminate benefits.