CFR > Title 20 - Employees' Benefits > CHAPTER I—OFFICE OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION PROGRAMS, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR > SUBCHAPTER C—ENERGY EMPLOYEES OCCUPATIONAL ILLNESS COMPENSATION PROGRAM ACT OF 2000 (parts 30 to 30) > PART 30—CLAIMS FOR COMPENSATION UNDER THE ENERGY EMPLOYEES OCCUPATIONAL ILLNESS COMPENSATION PROGRAM ACT OF 2000, AS AMENDED > SUBPART I—Wage-Loss Determinations Under Part E of EEOICPA (§30.800 to §30.815) > 30.801—What special definitions does OWCP use in connection with Part E wage-loss determinations?

30.801—What special definitions does OWCP use in connection with Part E wage-loss determinations?

For the purposes of paying compensation based on wage-loss under Part E of the Act, OWCP will apply the following definitions:
(a) Average annual wage means four times the average quarterly wages of a covered Part E employee for the 12 quarters preceding the quarter during which he or she first experienced wage-loss due to exposure to a toxic substance at a DOE facility or RECA section 5 facility, excluding any quarters during which the employee was unemployed. Because being “retired” is not equivalent to being “unemployed,” quarters during which an employee had no wages because he or she was retired will not be excluded from this calculation.
(b) Normal retirement age means the age at which a covered Part E employee first became eligible for unreduced retirement benefits under the Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) provisions of the Social Security Act. In general, persons born during or before 1937 are eligible for unreduced OASDI retirement benefits at age 65, and that age increases in monthly increments until it reaches 67, which is the age at which persons born during or after 1960 become eligible for unreduced OASDI retirement benefits.
(c) Quarter means the three-month period January through March, April through June, July through September, or October through December.
(d) Quarter during which the employee was unemployed means any quarter during which the covered Part E employee had $700 (in constant 2005 dollars) or less in wages unless the quarter is one during which the employee was retired.
(e) Year of wage-loss means a calendar year during which the covered Part E employee's earnings were less than his or her average annual wage, after such earnings have been adjusted using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), as produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, to reflect their value in the year during which the employee first experienced wage-loss due to exposure to a toxic substance at a DOE facility or RECA section 5 facility.