Report details return-to-work trends among injured Texas workers

Austin, TX — In Texas, 69% percent of employees who returned to work within six months of being injured in 2020 remained on the job for at least nine months.

That compares with 59% in 2019, according to the Texas Department of Insurance, which looked at 2007-2020 data from the state’s workers’ compensation system.

Measuring the sustained return-to-work percentage “is important in understanding the Texas workers’ compensation system’s ability to both help an employee return to work after an injury and make sure they stay employed,” states a TDI report detailing the findings.

Over the course of the first 13 years of the 14 years of data analyzed, the sustained RTW percentage had generally increased or remained stable when claimants went to back to work 12, 18, 24 and 36 months after an injury. That data wasn’t available for 2020.

The “initial” RTW percentages in 2020 were 83% when claimants went back six months post-injury and 92% when they went back one year post-injury.

Overall, their average days away from work was 43. Claimants who returned to work within six months needed about two years to return to their pre-injury wage levels.

“Injured employee wage recovery shows that employees that return to work within six months post-injury were able to recover to pre-injury wages faster than employees who do not return to work within six months post-injury,” the report states.