FAQs: Iowa Professional Employees Workers’ Compensation

Workers’ compensation has a reputation as a field relating to manual labor occupations. However, nurses, doctors, and health care professionals work in settings with rigorous physical requirements exposing them to a variety of injuries. Production managers and supervisors in manufacturing and warehouse settings are exposed to many of the same hazards of other workers in those facilities. Salespersons and executives frequently travel and can suffer injuries in car accidents or from other travel hazards. Office workers and other business professionals may be assaulted by customers or suffer injuries while moving office supplies or equipment. There are, in fact, numerous settings where “white collar” workers experience serious work injuries. These cases present very specialized legal issues. Below is a summary of some of the themes associated with work injuries in professional occupations. For more information about workers’ compensation, see Iowa Workers’ Compensation Law Fast Facts.

Managers and executives are compensated not only with salaries or wages, but also with bonuses, commissions, and other performance incentives. When determining what income to use in calculating workers’ compensation benefits, examine all income sources to determine if the employee’s regular and customary earnings are factored into his or her rate. These omissions result in significant benefit underpayments. If left uncorrected, this could result in the injured professional employee losing out on substantial amounts of monetary benefits.

Basically, the injury must have a connection to the employee’s work activities. For incident injuries, the most important factor is whether the employee was working when the injury occurred and whether it was the result of an employment risk. For cumulative injuries, the employee’s work activities must be a substantial contributing factor to the injury – not the exclusive cause.

Injuries sustained going to and coming from work and “idiopathic” injuries entirely personal to the worker, are generally not covered, though there are exceptions.

Generally, when a worker is injured on a commute to or from his or her regular work site, the injury is not covered by workers’ compensation law. Business workers who use a company vehicle, however, can be shown to have been in the course of their employment. Their company vehicle is provided with the understanding the employee engages in work-related travel on a regular basis and they may be expected to perform work activities and errands at any time.