Work Related Hearing Loss in Pennsylvania: A Claim With Its Own Rules

It does not depend on missing work

This is the part that surprises people. Hearing loss claims are specific loss claims, and specific loss is paid for the permanent loss itself. You can have worked continuously throughout and still be entitled.

Which is why plant, refinery, construction and manufacturing workers frequently retire with significant noise induced loss and never make a claim. Nobody told them there was one.

How it is measured

By audiogram, performed to a defined standard, with the result converted into a percentage of binaural hearing impairment. There is a threshold below which no award is payable, and the benefit scales above it.

Testing conditions matter. Have it done properly rather than relying on a screening at a health fair, and be aware that an employer’s own periodic testing programme may already have created a useful record of your decline over years.

The causation argument

Insurers argue that hearing loss is age related, that it came from shooting or motorcycles, or that the pattern does not match noise exposure. Noise induced loss has a recognisable audiometric shape, and an experienced examiner can distinguish it.

Long service in a documented noisy environment is powerful. Ask whether your employer conducted noise surveys or issued hearing protection, because both establish that the workplace was loud enough to require it.

Tinnitus

Persistent ringing frequently accompanies noise induced loss and is worth reporting explicitly rather than mentioning in passing. It affects sleep and concentration and it is easy to leave out of a record focused on decibels.