Lost Wages vs. Loss of Earning Capacity in Georgia: What Is the Difference?
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Lost wages are pay you already missed because of the injury; loss of earning capacity is the reduction in your ability to earn in the future. Georgia law lists both, separately, among “economic damages” (O.C.G.A. § 9-10-184(a)(1): “loss of wages; loss of income; loss of earning capacity”), and the Court of Appeals treats earning capacity as a distinct claim that requires a permanent or total physical disability and evidence that lets the jury fix the amount “with reasonable certainty”.
The two claims side by side
| Lost wages | Loss of earning capacity | |
|---|---|---|
| Time | From the injury to trial | The future |
| What it measures | Earnings actually missed | Diminished physical ability to work |
| Core proof | Pay records, tax returns, employer confirmation of days missed | Evidence of earnings, or earning ability, before and after the injury, plus medical proof of a lasting disability |
| Threshold | Proof that the absence was caused by the injury | A physical injury resulting in "a permanent or total physical disability" |
What Georgia requires for earning capacity
In Jones v. O’Day (2010), a Georgia Tech midshipman who wanted to fly for the Navy alleged that his eye surgeon performed Lasik instead of the PRK procedure he had consented to, disqualifying him from Naval flight school. The Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment against his lost earning capacity claim. Drawing on earlier decisions, the court stated these rules:
- A permanent or total disability is essential. Quoting Leggett v. Benton Bros. (1976), recovery for lost earning capacity is a separate element of damages “of which physical injury to the plaintiff resulting in a permanent or total physical disability is the essential element”.
- Reasonable certainty as to amount. In a passage quoted from Myrick v. Stephanos (1996), it is “an item of special damages which requires some evidence upon which a jury can base with reasonable certainty a finding as to amount of such damages”.
- Before and after evidence. The same passage adds that actual earnings are not essential, but “there must nevertheless appear some evidence, either direct or circumstantial, tending to show what the plaintiff was capable of earning both before and after the injury”.
- No speculative careers. The court held that it “is not permissible to allow a recovery of lost earning capacity based upon an occupation in which the plaintiff had never engaged or had not demonstrated the skill and capacity to successfully pursue”.
The court identified three grounds, any of which supported summary judgment: no admissible evidence that Lasik disqualified him (his account of what advisors told him was hearsay), no evidence that he had the skill and capacity to become a pilot, and no showing that he was physically disabled from becoming one.
Lost wages in practice
Lost wages look backward, so the proof is documentary: what you earned, how many days or weeks you missed, and why. If you were self-employed, tax returns, invoices, and contracts can show what you were earning before and during the absence.
Reducing future amounts to present value
An award for future earning capacity covers money you would have earned years from now. Under O.C.G.A. § 51-12-13(a), the trier of fact may reduce “lost wages, or other economic damages” to present value “based on a discount rate of 5 percent or any other discount rate as the trier of fact may deem appropriate”. Because the rate changes the total, the economic experts’ choice of rate is a point the jury can weigh. Future medical costs raise the same question; see how future medical expenses are proven in Georgia.
Records to gather
- Pay stubs, W-2s or 1099s, and tax returns for the years before the injury.
- An employer letter showing pay rate and the dates missed.
- Medical opinions on whether the impairment is permanent and what work it rules out.
- Evidence of the skills, training, and work history that show what you were capable of earning.
How economic damages differ from pain and suffering is explained in economic and noneconomic damages in Georgia.
Sources
- O.C.G.A. § 9-10-184(a)(1), as enacted by Senate Bill 68 (2025), § 1; § 51-12-13 (text as published in October 2016 on a mirror site; no amendment recorded in the 2022 to 2026 legislative summaries).
- Jones v. O’Day, 303 Ga. App. 159 (2010)
General information about Georgia law as of October 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.