Workers' Compensation (L&I)
The state of Washington recognizes hearing loss caused by noise exposure as one form of occupational injury deserving compensation. Compensation is awarded without regard to who may be at fault.
Washington treats hearing loss as a permanent partial disability, meaning that the affected individual is still able to work, but may not be able to earn as much as before the loss. Individuals who suffer a permanent partial disability are entitled to a single lum-sum payment.
Some large employers are self-insured, and pay the required compensation directly to the worker. Other employers belong to a statewide insurance pool administered by the Division of Labor & Industries (L&I). In either case, compensation is determined according to a schedule mandated by the Legislature.
The amount paid for hearing readjusts every July 1 based on changes in the Consumer Price Index. As of July 1, 2007, the lump-sum amount paid for complete loss of hearing in both ears is $81,302.91. The amount paid for complete loss of hearing in one ear is $13,550.40. (A discussion of how hearing loss is measured in found in the "How Bad Is My Hearing?" section)
Where the hearing loss is partial rather than total, L&I benefits are paid in proportion to total loss, so someone with a 70 percent binaural loss would receive 70 percent of the amount awarded for a total loss.
L&I claims are originally filed by the claimant's physician. If the claim is denied, then claimants are advised to hire attorneys to appeal the denial. A successful claimant is entitled to recover attorneys' fees as well as the award, so often, the claimant need not pay fees unless the claim is successful, and need not pay the attorney out of the amounts recovered.
L&I also pays for medical costs -- this is one situation in which someone else will actually pay for needed hearing aids.
The legal questions surrounding compensation for hearing loss have generally involved trying to fix the time when the loss occurs. Employers have often argued for the earliest possible date of onset, because compensation then would be paid under an old and more modest benefit schedule. Washington's court have resolved this dilemma by adopting a sliding scale in which the first measured loss is compensated under the schedule in effect at the time of the initial loss, and then as further loss occurs, the incremental loss is compensated under a newer schedule. It's a multi-step but fairly straightforward computation.
Because hearing generally diminishes as we get older, some medical experts have tried to separate out age-related hearing loss from noise-related loss. Washington courts have rejected that apportionment formula, stating that the L&I statutes require individualized determinations, and that overall averages can't be used. As a result, a 60-year-old worker with a noise-related loss would receive the same compensation as a 30-year-old worker with the same loss, even though there is a reasonable statistical probability that the 60-year-old's hearing would be worse had neither been exposed to noise.
