Did Amazon Worker’s Tavern Side Hustle Reduce his Entitlement to Benefits?

What Do You Think?

Whether an injured worker is entitled to total disability benefits or partial disability benefits can hinge on whether he continues working at a second job. That’s one reason it may be in the employer's best interest to inquire whether the employee has any side-gigs. 

In an illustrative case, a fulfillment associate for Amazon injured his neck while lifting a package during his daytime shift. His doctor released him with a modified-duty restriction. Amazon offered a position, but the only one available was on the night shift. Because of his “personal life,” the associate said, he couldn’t work at night and Amazon eventually terminated him. 

Meanwhile, he continued working at night in a bar -- Shady McGrady's – where he earned somewhere around $20 cash per night. He said he couldn’t recall reporting that income on his tax return.

A workers’ compensation judge awarded him temporary total disability benefits in the amount of $491 per week. The WCJ did include the money earned from the bar job because there was no documentation of how much the claimant earned. The Board affirmed that decision, and Amazon appealed.

On appeal, the court explained that where a claimant is not disabled from other jobs he held at the time of injury, he is entitled to partial disability, not total disability. The amount the employer must pay is reduced by the wages earned from the other jobs.

Was the claimant entitled to total disability benefits?

A. Yes. He earned only a little cash from his night job, and there was no way to calculate how much.

B. No. His injury did not prevent him from working the other job.

If you selected B, you agreed with the court in Amazon.com Services, LLC v. Carlson, No. 381 C.D. 2024 (Pa. Comm’w Ct. 05/07/25), which held that the WCJ should have awarded temporary partial disability benefits, given that the claimant was continuing his nighttime gig.

In addition, the WCJ should have included the money the associate earned at the bar when calculating Amazon’s liability. “The fact that Claimant did not report this income for tax purposes is of no moment,” the court wrote.

The court also pointed out that Amazon accommodated the associate when it offered him a suitable night shift job. The claimant rejected it not because the job was outside of his restrictions but because it interfered with his personal life. However, an employer is not required to offer an injured worker a job with the same work hours when the injury has no bearing on when the claimant works.

“[H]aving been offered a position within his physical restrictions and capabilities, the burden shifted to Claimant to explain some compelling reason why he was unable to work the night shift," the court wrote. "Claimant did not do so."

The court remanded the case for the WCJ to award partial disability benefits and include the wages received from the other job in its calculations.

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