Cal. Supreme Court Rules that 50% Increase for Serious and Willful Claims is Based on Take Home Pay for Public Employees
On 2/20/25, in Dept. of Corrections & Rehab. v WCAB, the California Supreme Court yesterday that a 50% hike in workers’ compensation benefits that applies where an employee is incapacitated due to a workplace injury caused by an employer’s “serious and willful misconduct” is to be calculated based on the amount a worker is normally entitled to take home under the Labor Code, and not, in the case of certain public employees, based on high sums received by them under a separate statutory scheme.