On March 5, 2024, Associate Policy Director Brianna January testified before the Senate Finance Committee in opposition to SB 845- Workers’ Compensation- Temporary or Partial Disability- Concurrent Employment. This bill would require employers to effectively pay temporary total disability instead of the current practice of temporary partial disability for workers’ compensation claims in which the claimant has and continues to work in a second job.
Today, there are two kinds of worker comp disability levels: total and partial. Partial in concurrent employment cases is for when someone can still do some work, just not all of their job duties. They work at a desk or you work part time, for example. SB 845 would allow some claims to collect total compensation, even if the claimant can still go work a second job. Doing so would be a dramatic change in how the State handles workers’ comp, which would be unfair to employers and would be a significant financial burden for local governments.
Counties are just one set of employers impacted by the financial ramifications of SB 845, but the bill has especially challenging implications for local governments. Maryland’s counties are facing an unprecedented wave of fiscal effects. Revenues are softening − and are even in decline − as federal support recedes from the national economy and high interest rates slow real estate sales. Costs of workforce, construction, and legal liability are all mounting dramatically. Additionally, the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future poses costs for education that, for each county, will absorb or exceed their projected new revenues from current sources.
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