In Pavia v Smitty’s Supermarket, 118 S.W.3d 228 (Mo. App. S.D. 2003), supermarket employee, who at the time was seventeen years old, fell 15 to 20 feet. The Court of Appeals upheld the Commission’s determination that employee was permanently and totally disabled even though he had a gofer type job at a car dealership, but reversed Commission’s workers’ compensation award based on a projected weekly average wage of $600, which was the wage of a full-time employee in a managerial position. As to the weekly average rate of $600, there was no evidence that the supermarket had intended to promote him from a bagger so that he would be earning a weekly wage of $600 a week by the time claimant reached 21 years. If his current salary would have been used, then the wage rate would have been $103 based on his hourly earnings of $5.15. However, the Commission could consider evidence of wages from outside employment, either wages earned by the minor himself or wages earned by similarly situated minors, when computing future earning power during minority. Therefore, the Commission could use, at a minimum, the average wage of $300 a week that employee earned post-injury as a gofer for a car dealership.
In Nelson v Fred Nelson d/b/a Tip Top Drywall, (LIRC), 2/1/01, (ALJ Wilson), Court relies on actual earnings, not projected earnings by sole proprietor in his application for workers’ compensation insurance.
In Oberley v Oberley Engineering, Inc., 940 S.W.2d 953 (Mo.App. S.D. 1997), the court concluded there were exceptional facts warranting the inclusion of personal expenses and officer’s salary paid to employee/sole shareholder of the corporate employer for determining the correct compensation rate.