Detailed Answer

Short answer: For a minor neck and back injury in South Carolina, you calculate lost wages by totaling the actual time you missed from work (including time for ER visits and physical therapy), multiplying those hours or days by your usual rate of pay (including regular overtime/commissions if they were regularly earned), and documenting the loss with employer records, paystubs, appointment records, and medical notes. If you are self-employed, you document lost profits with ledgers, tax returns, and client records. Keep careful records and try to minimize avoidable losses.

Step-by-step method to calculate lost wages

1. Identify all time missed: Make a list of each day and partial day you missed because of the injury and related care (ER, follow-ups, physical therapy). Include travel and recovery time if it caused you to miss work.
2. Document the reason for each absence: Keep ER records, discharge papers, physician notes, and PT attendance records that show the date and time of each visit. These connect the missed time to medical treatment for the injury.
3. Use your usual pay rate: For hourly workers: multiply hours missed by your regular hourly rate. Include regularly-scheduled overtime that you actually would have worked and been paid for. For salaried workers: convert salary to a daily or hourly equivalent (annual salary ÷ number of work days per year or weekly salary ÷ days worked per week) and multiply by missed time.
4. Include additional compensation when appropriate: If you regularly earn commissions, tips, bonuses, shift differentials, or production pay that you lost because you missed work, include the reasonable average you would have earned. Use historical pay records (paystubs, commission statements) to calculate a reliable average.
5. Self-employed and gig workers: Calculate lost net earnings (profit), not gross receipts. Use contemporaneous business records, invoices that show canceled work, tax returns (Schedule C), bank deposits, and client communications to show income you would have earned but did not. If work was postponed rather than lost permanently, show the difference in profit.
6. Consider partial-day losses and travel time: If medical appointments caused you to miss part of a workday, prorate pay for that fraction of the day. Also consider reasonable travel and recovery time that interfered with work.
7. Compute future wage loss if applicable: If the injury reduces your future earning capacity, an expert (vocational specialist or economist) typically projects the loss of future earnings. For minor injuries limited to short-term recovery, future wage loss is less common, but still possible if restrictions persist.
8. Sum and subtotal: Add past lost wages (already missed and verifiable) and, if claimed, projected future wage loss. Keep clear subtotals for past vs. future, and for wages vs. other economic losses.

Evidence you should collect

• Paystubs, W-2s, 1099s, and recent tax returns
• Employer attendance records, timecards, or an employer statement verifying hours/days missed
• ER discharge summaries, imaging reports, office visit notes, and physical therapy attendance records
• Vehicle mileage logs and travel receipts if travel to care caused missed work time
• Invoices, contracts, bank deposits, and ledgers if self-employed
• Copies of communications (emails/texts) showing cancelled shifts, assignments or clients

How South Carolina law treats lost wages (basic principles)

Under South Carolina tort principles, lost earnings are a recoverable element of economic damages when the missed work is caused by another party’s negligence or a compensable injury. You must prove the amount of your loss with reasonable certainty and mitigate avoidable losses (for example, by attempting to schedule medical care outside work hours when reasonable). For an overview of South Carolina statutes and to research related rules, you can search the South Carolina Code of Laws online: https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code.php.

Note: workers’ compensation claims follow a different statutory system. If your injury arose out of and in the course of employment, workers’ compensation rules apply to wage-replacement benefits; those rules and procedures are administered separately from third-party personal injury claims.

Practical examples

Example A — Hourly employee: You earn $20/hour. You missed an 8-hour shift for an ER visit and two 3-hour PT sessions on two different days (each causing you to miss 4 hours of work). Calculate: (8 + 4 + 4) = 16 hours × $20 = $320 in past lost wages. Add any lost overtime or tips you can document.

Example B — Salaried employee: You earn $52,000/year and work 260 business days. Daily rate = $52,000 ÷ 260 = $200/day. You missed three full workdays for PT and recovery = 3 × $200 = $600 lost wages.

Example C — Self-employed contractor: You normally bill $1,200/week and your profit margin averages 60% ($720/week). If a medical appointment caused you to lose a week of billable work that was not recoverable, your lost wages claim would focus on lost profit: $720 for that week, supported by invoices, client notes, and bank deposits.

Common issues and how to avoid them

• Failure to document: Without pay records and medical notes, you may not prove the loss. Get employer confirmations in writing when possible.
• Attribution disputes: An insurer or defendant may claim the missed time was for unrelated reasons. Rely on contemporaneous records (appointment confirmations, discharge papers) that tie time off to the injury.
• Mitigation: If you unreasonably refused to attempt make-up work or to schedule reasonable alternative appointment times, a defendant may argue you failed to mitigate damages.

When to talk to an attorney: If the other side disputes the amount of your wage loss, if the loss is substantial, or if you also have claims for future wage loss or permanent impairment, consult a South Carolina personal injury attorney to evaluate evidence and help prepare wage-loss calculations and expert testimony where needed.

Disclaimer

This article is for general informational purposes and educational use only. It does not provide legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, consult a licensed attorney in South Carolina.

Helpful Hints

• Keep an organized folder (digital or physical) with paystubs, tax records, employer statements, and medical records.
• Ask your employer for a written statement verifying days/hours missed and whether you would have worked those hours.
• Get attendance records and time-stamped medical paperwork for every appointment.
• If self-employed, maintain contemporaneous ledgers or invoicing records showing lost work and lost income.
• Track travel time to and from treatment and whether that time caused you to miss work.
• Save communication with insurers and opposing parties; do not sign releases without understanding the scope of wage-loss recovery.
• Consider a simple spreadsheet: date, hours/days missed, pay rate, evidence source — this makes any later claim clearer and easier to prove.