Many times when a worker suffers an injury that results in temporary restrictions, the employer provides work within those restrictions. Many times, employees are restricted to work 40 hours instead of regular overtime and it has an effect on their average weekly wage.
The rule in temporary partial disability is that during the period of doing light duty if the person earns less than they did at the time of their injury, they are entitled to two-thirds of the difference. For example, if the average weekly wage at the time of an injury is $900 (gross), and during light duty because of being unable to work overtime or for some other reason, the employee actually earns $600 (gross) there is a different of $300 and the employee would be entitled to $200 in temporary partial disability.
In that same example, if the injured employee was totally off work the temporary total disability rate (TTD) would be two-thirds of the average weekly wage or $600. Many times the employee believes he may not earn more than the TTD rate while working light duty. This is not correct. In the example above, the individual actually earned $600 performing light duty and they are still entitled to two-thirds of the difference between the average weekly wage and what they actually earned. This is a common misunderstanding and you need to make sure that you are getting everything to which you are entitled under the law.