Employers in the private sector said there were about 2.5 million nonfatal injuries and illnesses at work in 2024. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS, reported this fact.
Out of these cases, roughly 888,100 included days when the person could not work. For a large number of injured workers, they had to be away from their usual jobs.
If an employee gets hurt at work, they may qualify for workers’ compensation. This program helps pay for certain losses tied to the injury. A common question among employees is, “Can you get another job while on workers’ comp?” Getting workers’ compensation does not always mean you have to stop working completely. Still, if you take another job while you get benefits, it can lead to legal and financial problems.
Your medical restrictions can affect your ability to work, your earnings, and your eligibility for certain benefits. It also depends on whether you can actually do the job. The rules in your state for workers’ compensation can change the outcome of your case. Some benefits may be cut. Others may end.
If you do not report new work or income when you must, it could hurt your claim. You may face an overpayment issue, or it could lead to fraud concerns.
If you want to take another job while you are on benefits, first check what your doctor says you can and cannot do. Review what you must report and when you must do so. Then think about how the extra pay might change your benefits.
Why this question is more complicated than it sounds
Workers’ compensation exists to replace income lost once an injury prevents someone from doing their job. That basic purpose is precisely why a second job creates complications. If you’re collecting benefits for your inability to work but are also working elsewhere, the insurer will wonder why you can’t do your old job if you can do this one.
The answer depends on the type of benefit involved and whether the second job existed before the injury happened. Those two variables matter more than almost anything else in this situation.
If you already had the second job before you got hurt
If you were already working two jobs when you were injured, and the injury affects your ability to work one or both, workers’ compensation can cover that lost income, as long as it was properly reported when the claim was filed.
Failing to disclose a pre-existing second job at the outset is what leads to problems later, even if the omission wasn’t intentional.
If you’re considering a new second job while already collecting benefits
This scenario is where things get risky. Taking on a new job while receiving benefits for a primary job you supposedly can’t perform sends a signal to the insurer, whether or not that signal reflects reality. Depending on the type of benefit you’re receiving, the consequences can range from a reduction in what you’re paid to a full termination of benefits.
Benefits that replace total lost wages are at risk here. If you’re receiving compensation on the basis that you can’t work at all, taking a second job, even one that’s genuinely less physically demanding than your original position, can undercut that claim and give an insurer grounds to argue you’re not as disabled as claimed.
Benefits tied to partial wage loss work differently. In that situation, income from a second job gets factored directly into the benefit calculation, reducing the gap the payments are meant to cover rather than eliminating them outright.
Where the real legal risk comes from
Working a second job itself usually isn’t the violation. Not disclosing it is. Every state requires injured workers to report changes in their ability to work and any income they’re earning. Failing to do that, whether it’s an old job you kept working or a new one you picked up, tends to cross into fraud territory.
Insurers and state fraud units do investigate cases where undisclosed income surfaces, and the consequences can include repayment of benefits, fines, and, in more serious cases, criminal charges.
You should be open about your income from the beginning. Reporting any income, from any source, as soon as it exists protects the claim rather than jeopardizing it. Trying to quietly work around the system tends to produce exactly the outcome someone was trying to avoid.
What actually determines the outcome
The rules vary by state, and because benefit types and case specifics change how a second job gets treated, this isn’t a situation where a general answer applies cleanly to every case.
A Winston-Salem workers’ compensation lawyer usually looks at the specific benefit type, the nature of the injury, and the details of any second job before making a decision that could affect the claim either way.
Working a second job while on workers’ comp isn’t the automatic disqualifier some people assume it is, but it isn’t a free pass either. The difference between “allowed with proper disclosure” and “a serious problem” usually depends on transparency.
Getting another job while on workers’ compensation does not mean you cannot do both, but it may affect your claim. What are the restrictions that apply to your condition? What benefits do you have right now? How much are you making? What does the law say in your state? You should discuss the answers to these questions with your lawyer to prevent further legal complications in the future.
