It can be very stressful having an accident at work. The immediate thoughts are how you are going to cope financially and when you will be able to return to work. States differ in their regulations abut workers’ compensation insurance, but generally if you work for a major employer like PetSmart you should be covered by your employer’s insurance policy. It’s best to make a claim as soon as you return to work for the time you have been away and the full medical costs. Paperwork needs to be complete and legal help can be found if you need it with an experienced workers’ comp. attorney. PetSmart’s Company Profile PetSmart is a chain of stores and services that operate across the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. The stores sell pet supplies as well as a variety of pets from birds to goldfish and rabbits to puppies.There are now over 1,500 PetSmart stores as well as a number of associated pet related services such as PetSmart’s Pets Hotels, Pet Hospitals and Doggie day Camps. The company was first established when it opened its first 2 stores in 1986 in Phoenix, Arizona. The company headquarters are still in Phoenix and the number of employees around 53,000. Hourly Wages at PetSmart There are many different types of jobs at a PetSmart store, especially when all the related services are taken into account. There are the typical store assistants or sales assistants, but generally they do need to know about pets and pet care. There are dog handlers, trainers, pet care attendants and many more different job classifications. Only a few of the possible hourly wages are given here, courtesy of payscale.com’s website. The figures are adjusted for August 2017. cashiers: $8.95 an hour; dog bathers: $9.08 an hour; pet care attendant: $9.69 an hour; sales associates: $9.7 an hour; dog groomers; $10.57 an hour Workers’ Comp. Claim Calculations if Injured at PetSmart Workers’ comp. is a no-fault type of compensation. As long as you haven’t deliberately set out to become injured, it doesn’t matter who was at fault if you had an accident. Workers’ comp. payments are only for medical expenses incurred and a percentage of earnings that might have been earned if you hadn’t had to stay away from work. Medical expenses are simply tallied up, making sure that the bills or invoices only cover work related injury treatment. Insurers will be quick to point out inconsistencies if you do not have a complete set of paperwork. For the lost earnings component, it must be established exactly when you were injured and when you stopped working and when you returned. The actual calculation is a multiple of the hourly wage, the number of hours not worked and the percentage of earnings allowed by the state, normally around 67% Just to use an example of a PetSmart employee who is badly bitten by a dog at work and is off work for 5 weeks (180 hours in total) here is the calculation needed to establish a figure for the claim. $10.57 (hourly wage for a dog groomer) x 180 (total no. of hours off work) x 0.67 (percentage allowed) = $1,274. A WC Attorney Can Provide Valuable Legal Advice About WC Claims Talk to a workers’ compensation attorney if you need help with a workers’ comp. claim. Advice is especially useful if your claim is denied for some reason or the payment offered seems insufficient. If all else fails, you may need to ask the attorney about filing a personal injury lawsuit against your employer, but you do have to be able to prove in that case that your injuries could have been avoided if your employer had been more careful about safety conditions at work. *The content of this article serves only to provide information and should not be construed as legal advice. If you file a claim against PetSmart, or any other party, you may not be entitled to any compensation.
