Is the noise at your job affecting your hearing?
If you’ve spent years working around loud machinery, power tools, heavy equipment or other noisy conditions, it’s a question worth asking.
Why it Matters: Occupational hearing loss often develops gradually. Workers may not recognize the damage until years after it begins. By then, the hearing loss may be permanent.
Protect Your Hearing, Know Your Rights: October is National Protect Your Hearing Month, an opportunity to raise awareness about workplace noise and how workers can protect their hearing.
Benefits You’re Entitled To: For workers who have already suffered hearing damage, there’s another important message: New York State Workers’ Compensation may provide medical treatment, hearing aids, and financial compensation for qualifying work-related hearing loss.
What You’ll Learn: This article explains how to:
- Recognize the warning signs of occupational hearing loss.
- Protect your hearing and understand employers’ responsibilities for workplace noise safety.
- Understand your workers’ compensation benefits, including medical treatment, hearing aids, and financial compensation for qualifying hearing loss.
- Pursue a workers’ compensation claim by documenting workplace noise exposure, understanding filing deadlines, and taking the necessary steps to seek benefits.
A workplace injury can result in devastating losses. Employees involved in a workplace accident in New York State are covered under workers compensation insurance, which provides benefits for lost wages, medical bills, and prescription drugs.
It is important to be aware of changes in the complex process and policies involved in workers’ compensation, to ensure you get all the benefits you are entitled to. Two such changes are a new maximum lost wage benefit and a new minimum weekly benefit, both of which went into effect on 7/1/2026 and apply to injuries occurring on or after 7/1/2026.
The following addresses why the changes were made, how the new rates work, and the questions every injured worker should ask regarding a weekly benefit check.
More…
New Rule for Virtual Workers’ Compensation Hearings in New York State
Effective February 2, 2026, all injured workers and witnesses testifying in virtual hearings before the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board will be required to appear by video, with their faces fully visible on screen. Injured workers will be allowed to testify via video from home or from the office of their attorney during virtual hearings.
Background on Workers’ Compensation Virtual Hearings
The New York State Workers’ Compensation Board introduced virtual hearings in 2018, which allowed participants to attend workers’ compensation proceeding from their home or office. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the New York State Workers Compensation Board conducted all hearings virtually. Today, workers’ compensation proceedings continue to be virtual, with a vast majority of appearances occurring via telephone.
More…