Bill 3657

                    Current Status

Bill Number:               3657
Ratification Number:       95
Act Number                 57
Introducing Body:          House
Subject:                   Relating to the amount of workers'
                           compensation for the death of an employee due
                           to an accident

(A57, R95, H3657)

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 42-9-290, AS AMENDED, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO THE AMOUNT OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION FOR THE DEATH OF AN EMPLOYEE DUE TO AN ACCIDENT, SO AS TO PROVIDE FOR A MINIMUM WEEKLY PAYMENT OF SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS, RATHER THAN TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS, SO LONG AS THIS AMOUNT DOES NOT EXCEED THE EMPLOYEE'S AVERAGE WEEKLY WAGES, AND TO PROVIDE THAT IF THE AMOUNT DOES EXCEED AVERAGE WEEKLY WAGES, THE AMOUNT PAYABLE MAY NOT BE LESS THAN THE EMPLOYEE'S AVERAGE WEEKLY WAGES.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

Minimum weekly payment changed

SECTION 1. The first paragraph of Section 42-9-290 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 390 of 1988, is further amended to read:

"If death results proximately from an accident and within two years of the accident or while total disability still continues and within six years after the accident, the employer shall pay or cause to be paid, subject, however, to the provisions of the other sections of this title, in one of the methods provided in this chapter, to the dependents of the employee wholly dependent upon his earnings for support at the time of the accident, a weekly payment equal to sixty-six and two-thirds percent of his average weekly wages, but not less than seventy-five dollars a week so long as this amount does not exceed his average weekly wages; if this amount does exceed his average weekly wages, the amount payable may not be less than his average weekly wages nor more than the average weekly wage in this State for the preceding fiscal year, for a period of five hundred weeks from the date of the injury, and burial expenses up to but not exceeding twenty-five hundred dollars. If the employee leaves dependents, only partly dependent upon his earnings for support at the time of the injury, the weekly compensation to be paid must equal the same proportion of the weekly payments for the benefit of persons wholly dependent as the amount contributed by the employee to such partial dependence bears to the annual earnings of the deceased at the time of his injury. When weekly payments have been made to an injured employee before his death, the compensation to dependents begins from the date of the last of such payments but does not continue more than five hundred weeks from the date of the injury. Compensation under this title to aliens not residents (or about to become nonresidents) of the United States or Canada is the same in amount as provided for residents, except that dependents in any foreign country are limited to a surviving spouse and child or children or, if there be no surviving spouse or child, to a surviving father or mother whom the employee has supported, either wholly or in part, for a period of three years before the date of the injury, and except that the commission may, at its option, or upon the application of the insurance carrier, commute all future installments of compensation to be paid to such aliens by paying or causing to be paid to them one-half of the commuted amount of future installments of compensation as determined by the commission."

Time effective

SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.