United States Longshore And Harbor Workers' Compensation Act Of 1927- LHWCA

The United States Longshore And Harbor Workers' Compensation Act of 1927 (LHWCA) covered some special issues only longshoremen and harbor workers have to worry about.

If you didn’t know, legal matters can get murky out on the open waters. Employees who worked on the high seas wanted to be insured if they were injured while on the job, whether the injury happened on land or on the ocean. At first, the LHWCA covered employees injured on navigable waters of the U.S., but was later extended to include dock workers and other kinds of near-the-water and on-the-water workers.

LHWC gives longshore and harbor workers two-thirds of their weekly pay while they’re receiving medical treatment from an on-the-job injury. If you were permanently injured, but only partially injured, you get that same two-thirds of weekly pay, in addition to some extra, one-time cash, depending on the injury.

Lost an arm? That’s worth a flat sum of 312 weeks of your wage. Lost a leg? Apparently that’s less worse than losing an arm, so it’s worth 244 weeks of compensation. An eye? 160 weeks of compensation.

There exist different payment tables like this for temporary total disability, temporary partial disability, permanent total disability, and permanent partial disability (detailed a bit above).