If you have been hurt and had to take time off work, you can make a personal injury claim for your lost wages. This may require calculating your average daily wage, or ADW. In this article, we define ADW, show how to calculate it, and explain how it is used in personal injury claims.

Key Takeaways

• Average daily wage (ADW) is one way to calculate an employee’s average earnings
• ADW is less commonly used than AWW, or average weekly wage
• ADW can be used to determine how much compensation an employee can get from a personal injury claim if they experience an injury that prevents them from working

What Is Average Daily Wage?

Average daily wage, also called ADW, is a calculation of an employee’s average daily earnings. It is an alternative to the average weekly wage, or AWW, which is a similar figure but calculated for a week. 

AWW is used more often than ADW, but if the average weekly wage is not considered to be an accurate representation of a worker’s earnings for any reason, then the average daily wage will be used instead. 

Generally speaking, ADW is rather simple to calculate. For hourly workers, it can be calculated by multiplying the hourly wage by the hours worked per day. So if you earn $12 per hour and work eight-hour days, your average daily wage will be $96.

For salaried workers, the average daily wage can be calculated by dividing a paycheck by the number of days worked in that period. So, for workers paid bi-weekly, they would divide their paycheck by 10 business days to determine their ADW. For example, if you get paid $1,000 every 2 weeks, your average daily wage will be $100.

Average Daily Wage in Personal Injury Claims

If you were injured and cannot work as a result, you may be entitled to make a personal injury insurance claim to compensate you for your lost wages. When you make this claim, average daily wage is one way that you can calculate your earnings for the purpose of determining what you will receive as compensation. For example, if you were hurt from a fall and couldn’t go to work for eight days, you would be able to request compensation for eight days of average daily wages. 

Note that this will not apply if the days that you were unable to work were not days that you would have typically gone into work anyway. For example, if you only spent the weekend recovering and returned to work on Monday (and don’t typically work weekends), then you can’t claim average daily wages for those days off.

To help you correctly calculate your average daily wage, write a demand letter to your personal injury insurance, and guide you through the claims process so that you receive the fairest possible payout, it is highly recommended to work with an experienced personal injury lawyer who is familiar with the procedure.