Wage loss is calculated as pre-injury earnings minus post-injury earnings.

Wage loss is calculated as pre-injury earnings minus post-injury earnings.

• A. Pre-injury wages minus medical benefits
• B. Post-injury earnings only
• C. Pre-injury wages minus post-injury earnings
• D. Pre-injury wages plus tips

Answer: (C)

Wage loss measures the income you miss because of the injury by comparing what you earned before the injury to what you earn after. The amount lost is found by subtracting post-injury earnings from pre-injury earnings. This isolates the drop in earnings due to the injury, separate from medical benefits or any other compensation. The other options don’t fit: subtracting medical benefits from pre-injury wages would reflect medical costs or offsets, not wage loss; using post-injury earnings alone ignores the baseline you had before the injury; and adding pre-injury wages to tips mixes concepts rather than computing the earnings drop. The correct approach is pre-injury earnings minus post-injury earnings.

Wage loss measures the income you miss because of the injury by comparing what you earned before the injury to what you earn after. The amount lost is found by subtracting post-injury earnings from pre-injury earnings. This isolates the drop in earnings due to the injury, separate from medical benefits or any other compensation.

The other options don’t fit: subtracting medical benefits from pre-injury wages would reflect medical costs or offsets, not wage loss; using post-injury earnings alone ignores the baseline you had before the injury; and adding pre-injury wages to tips mixes concepts rather than computing the earnings drop. The correct approach is pre-injury earnings minus post-injury earnings.