Wages paid seaman under shipping act 14. Deducting wages paid to an assistant in computing compensation. Where a miner was killed it was held that the portion of his wages which he paid to an assistant should be deducted in computing the compensation, but that the cost of the explosives bought by him in the prosecution of the work, should not, under § 2, subsection (d) be deducted, in computing such compensation. M'Kee v. John S. Stein & Co. (1909), 47 Scotch L. R. 39; 3 B. W. C. C. 544. 15. Wages paid seaman under shipping act taken into account in awarding compensation.1 A seaman was injured at sea, and eight days later was placed in a hospital at New York, and discharged from the ship. In pursuance of the Merchant Shipping Acts, the shipowners paid him wages in respect of the eight days, maintained him in the hospital, and brought him back to England on his recovery. He claimed compensation from the. date of his return to England. The employers asked that accounts should be taken of the wages for the eight days as a payment made by them to the workman during incapacity. The County Court judge held that these wages being paid under a statutory liability, could not be so taken into account. The Court of Appeal reversed its decision. The House of Lords reversed the decision of the Court of Appeal, and held that the wages paid for eight days must be taken into account in fixing the amount of the weekly payments. McDermott v. Owners of S. S. Tintoretto (1911), A. C. 35; 4 B. W. C. C. 123. 1 Pensions from the United States government should not be considered in arriving at wages. See note to title Ohio in Article B, in this Chapter. California ARTICLE B-SPECIFIC PROVISIONS OF VARIOUS STATUTES, WITH NOTES ARIZONA "A sum equal to fifty (50) per centum of the workman's average semi-monthly earnings when at work on full time during the preceding year, if he shall have been in the employment of such employer for such length of time; but if not for a full year, then fifty (50) per centum of the average wages, whether semi-monthly, weekly, or daily, being earned by such workman during the time he was at work for his employer before and at the time of the accident." § 72,Subd.l. CALIFORNIA1 "§ 17. (a) The average weekly earnings referred to in section fifteen hereof shall be one fifty-second of the average annual earnings of the employé; in computing such earnings his average annual earnings shall be taken at not less than three hundred and thirty-three dollars and thirty-three cents, nor at more than one thousand six hundred and sixtysix dollars and sixty-six cents and between said limits shall be arrived at as follows: "(1) If the injured employé has worked in the same em ployment, whether for the same employer or not, during substantially the whole of the year immediately preceding his injury, his average annual earnings shall consist of three hundred times the average daily earnings, wage or salary which he earned as such employé during the days when so employed. 1 Applicant applied for a decision on the rate of wage payment for an injury sustained while in defendant's employ. The issue was as to contract work. Held that applicant, even though working on a contract basis, was an employé of the defendant and should receive compensation on his average wage while so employed and not on his average wage while working on a day's pay basis. There was only two weeks' compensation involved. Hart v. Mammoth Copper Mining Co., Cal. Indus. Acc. Bd., May 15, 1913. California "(2) If the injured employé has not so worked in such employment during substantially the whole of such immediately preceding year, his average annual earnings shall consist of three hundred times the average daily earnings, wage or salary which an employé of the same class, working substantially the whole of such immediately preceding year, in the same or a similar kind of employment, in the same or a neighboring place, earned during the days when so employed. "(3) In every case where for any reason the foregoing methods of arriving at the average annual earnings of the injured employé cannot reasonably and fairly be applied, such annual earnings shall be taken at such sum as, having regard to the previous earnings of the injured employé, and of other employés of the same or most similar class, working in the same or most similar employment, in the same or neighboring locality, shall reasonably represent the average annual earning capacity of the injured employé at the time of the injury in the kind of employment in which he was then working, or in any employment similar thereto. "(b) In determining such average weekly earnings, there shall be included the market value of board, lodging, fuel and other advantages received by the injured employé, as part of his remuneration and which can be estimated in money, but such average weekly earnings shall not include any sum which the employer paid to the injured employé to cover any special expenses entailed on him by the nature of his employment. "(c) If the injured employé is a minor, and his incapacity, whether total or partial, is permanent, his average weekly earnings shall be deemed, within the limits fixed, to be the weekly sum, that under ordinary circumstances he would probably be able to earn after obtaining the age of twentyone years, in the occupation in which he was employed at the time of the injury, if he had not been injured." When an employé receives two injuries at different times the wages on which the compensation is to be based are those received at the time of the later injury. See § 16 (ƒ) in Chapter XII. Illinois CONNECTICUT "Part B, § 13. Average Weekly Earnings. For the purpose of this act, the average weekly wage shall be ascertained by dividing the total wages received by the injured workman from the employer in whose service he is injured during that the twenty-six calendar weeks immediately preceding during which he was injured, by the number of said calendar weeks during which, or any portion of which, said workman was actually employed by said employer, provided in making such computation absence for seven consecutive calendar days, although not in the same calendar week, shall be considered as absence for a calendar week. Where the employment commenced other than at the beginning calendar week, such calendar week and the wages earned during such week, shall be excluded in making the computation. Where the employment previous to injury as provided above is computed to be less than a net period of two calendar weeks, then his weekly wage shall be considered to be equivalent to the average weekly wage prevailing in the same or similar employment in the same locality at the time of injury." above ILLINOIS "§ 10. The basis for computing the compensation provided for in sections 7 and 8 of the Act shall be as follows: “(a) The compensation shall be computed on the basis of the annual earnings which the injured person received as salary, wages or earnings if in the employment of the same employer continuously during the year next preceding the injury. "(b) Employment by the same employer shall be taken to mean employment by the same employer in the grade in which the employé was employed at the time of the accident, uninterrupted by absence from work due to illness or any other unavoidable cause. "(c) If the injured person has not been engaged in the Illinois employment of the same employer for the full year immediately preceding the accident, the compensation shall be computed according to the annual earnings which persons of the same class in the same employment and same location, (or if that be impracticable, of neighboring employments of the same kind) have earned during such period. "(d) As to employés in employments in which it is the custom to operate throughout the working days of the year, the annual earnings, if not otherwise determinable, shall be regarded as 300 times the average daily earnings in such computation. "(e) As to employés in employments in which it is the custom to operate for a part of the whole number of working days in each year, such number, if the annual earnings are not otherwise determinable, shall be used instead of 300 as a basis for computing the annual earnings, provided the minimum number of days which shall be so used for the basis of the year's work shall be not less than 200. "(f) In the case of injured employés who earn either no wage or less than the earnings of adult day laborers in the same line of employment in that locality, the yearly wage shall be reckoned according to the average annual earnings of adults of the same class in the same (or if that is impracticable, then of neighboring) employments. "(g) Earnings, for the purpose of this section, shall be based on the earnings for the number of hours commonly regarded as a day's work for that employment, and shall exclude overtime earnings. The earnings shall not include any sum which the employer has been accustomed to pay the employé to cover any special expense entailed on him by the nature of his employment. "(h) In computing the compensation to be paid to any employé, who, before the accident for which he claims compensation, was disabled and drawing compensation under the terms of this Act, the compensation for each subsequent injury shall be apportioned according to the proportion of incapacity and disability caused by the respective injuries which he may have suffered. "(i) To determine the amount of compensation for each |