## Facts

- Barbara Jean Price worked part-time as a cleaner for five different employers concurrently.
- Price worked at St. Mary’s Church & Mission once per week and earned $40 per week there.
- Price’s total gross weekly wages from all five jobs were about $417 ($377 from other employers and $40 from St. Mary’s).
- Price was injured while performing cleaning work at St. Mary’s.
- The injury prevented Price from working for any of her five employers.
- Price sought workers’ compensation benefits based on her full weekly earnings from all employers.
- St. Mary’s and its insurer admitted liability only based on $40 per week (Price’s St. Mary’s wages).
- A hearing officer calculated Price’s average weekly wage using combined wages from all five jobs and awarded benefits on that basis.
- The Colorado Industrial Commission affirmed the award, and St. Mary’s and its insurer sought appellate review.

## Issues

1. Whether, under Colorado workers’ compensation law, “average weekly wage” may be calculated using wages from multiple concurrent employments when the injury occurs in only one employment.
2. Whether a claimant disabled from performing all concurrent jobs is limited to benefits based solely on wages paid by the employer where the injury occurred.

## Decision

- The Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed the Industrial Commission’s award.
- The court held that Price’s average weekly wage could be based on her aggregated earnings from all concurrent employments.
- The court upheld benefit calculations using Price’s approximate $417 total weekly wages rather than $40 from St. Mary’s alone.

## Legal Principles

- Average weekly wage may be computed using total wages from concurrent employments when an injury sustained in one employment disables the worker from performing all concurrent work.
- Workers’ compensation statutes are construed to carry out their remedial purpose of compensating wage loss resulting from work-related injury.
- Wage calculation rules should reflect the worker’s actual pre-injury earning capacity when the compensable injury causes an across-the-board loss of earnings.

## Conclusion

The court upheld a workers’ compensation award calculating average weekly wage from all concurrent jobs because the claimant’s injury at one job prevented her from working at any of them, and limiting benefits to the single employer’s low weekly wage would not reflect the wage loss caused by the injury.


St. Mary's Church & Mission v. Colo. Indus. Comm'n, 735 P.2d 902 (Colo. App. 1986)