Tennessee National Guard Death and Disability Compensation

Section 58-1-230 is Tennessee's answer to a hard problem: a Guard member on state active duty is not on federal orders, so the federal death gratuity and the federal compensation scheme do not reach them. For injury, the member is compensated in the same manner and to the same extent as provided under the Workers' Compensation Law. What makes the section work is the wage the compensation is calculated on. It is the greater of the member's civilian employment wages or the federal active duty wages at the time the orders were issued. A Guard member whose civilian job pays more than the military rate is not compensated at the military rate, and a member whose civilian earnings are low or nonexistent is not compensated at that rate either. Permanent partial disability is paid as a lump sum. Temporary total and permanent total disability may be paid periodically on workers' compensation standards. For death, the section authorizes payment to survivors where a member dies during state active duty or training, or within one hundred twenty days afterward if the death results from a duty-related injury or disease. The one hundred twenty day tail is what covers the member who is gravely injured on duty and dies weeks later in a hospital. The benefit is based on and determined by the average weekly wage, on the same greater-of rule, with a statutory minimum of one hundred thousand dollars. The floor is the operative number for most families, because an average weekly wage calculation will rarely exceed it. The order of beneficiaries is fixed by statute rather than by the member's designation: surviving spouse first, then children including adopted and acknowledged children, then parents, then siblings in equal shares. Benefits coordinate rather than stack. State workers' compensation benefits are reduced by the amount of any medical care, hospitalization or incapacitation pay benefits paid by the federal government. A member who is covered federally for part of the same injury does not collect twice. This section is about state duty. A Guard member serving on federal Title 10 orders is inside the federal system, with the federal death gratuity, SGLI, and VA benefits, and 58-1-230 is not the operative provision.