McAninch v. Buncombe County Schools, Self-Insured

EAGLES, Judge.

Defendant first argues that the Full Commission erred in calculating plaintiff’s average weekly wages pursuant to G.S. 97-2(5). We agree. In this case we face the novel issue of whether a public school employee’s “average weekly wages” should be calculated with or without regard to the ten week summer vacation period.

G.S. 97-2(5) defines average weekly wages and provides in pertinent part that:

“Average weekly wages” shall mean the earnings of the injured employee in the employment in which he was working at the time of the injury during the period of 52 weeks immediately…