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SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA
No. 95-C-2933 RODNEY BREAUX Versus WILFRED HOFFPAUIR AND LOUISIANA WORKERS' COMPENSATION CORPORATION ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEAL, STATE OF LOUISIANA, THIRD CIRCUIT

KIMBALL, Justice.
I. Issue We granted writs in this case to determine if the amount of temporary total benefits due a worker under La. R.S. 23:1021, et seq., should be computed on his actual wages earned or on the federal minimum wage provided for by the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. 201, et seq., where a worker who is injured is being paid less than he is entitled to under the federal minimum wage law. We

conclude that the term "wage" as used in La. R.S. 23:1021, et seq., means the legal wage that a worker must be paid under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

II. Facts The underlying facts of this case are not disputed by the parties. Rodney Breaux ("claimant"), was employed as a farmhand by While claimant routinely worked twelve hours

Wilfred Hoffpauir.1

per day, six days per week, he was paid only $240.00 per week in wages. Claimant asserts, however, his weekly pay should have been

$170.00 in regular pay and $204.00 in overtime for a total weekly wage of $374.00 under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. 201,

Hoffpauir and his workers' compensation insurer, Louisiana Workers' Compensation Corporation, will be referred to as "defendants."

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et seq. ("the federal minimum wage law"). On October 13, 1992, claimant injured his back while unloading a bale of hay. against Claimant brought this workers' compensation claim The parties stipulated at trial that

defendants.

claimant's injury occurred arising out of and in the course of his employment and that claimant was entitled to temporary total disability benefits pursuant to La. R.S. 23:1221(1). At trial before the hearing officer, claimant contended that although his actual wages were below federal minimum wage, his workers' compensation benefits should be based on the federal minimum wage. The hearing officer, interpreting "wages" as used in

the Workers' Compensation Act to mean "actual wages," rejected claimant's contention and based her award of benefits on claimant's actual wages of $240.00 per week. Claimant appealed this decision Both lower

to the third circuit court of appeal, which affirmed.

tribunals pretermitted determining whether this particular claimant in fact fell under the scope of the Fair Labor Standards Act or worked under the exceptions thereto. Claimant sought a writ in 95-C-2933 (La.

this court which was granted to resolve this issue. 2/9/96).

III. The Law Under the Louisiana Workers' Compensation Act ("the Act"), an employee who proves his entitlement to temporary total disability receives "sixty-six and two-thirds percent of wages during the period of such disability." La. R.S. 23:1221(1)(a).2 "Wages" is

defined under the Act as "average weekly wage at the time of the accident." La. R.S. 23:1021(10).

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act establishes that, subject to some exceptions, all workers should be paid at least $4.25 per

Any award of benefits for permanent total disability and temporary total disability, however, must fall within the minimum and maximum benefit amounts set forth by La. R.S. 23:1202(B). 2

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hour for the first forty hours worked per week.

29 U.S.C. 206.

Additionally, employers are required to pay employees one and onehalf times the employee's regular rate of pay for every hour the employee works in excess of forty hours in a week. 29 U.S.C. 207.

When a law is clear and unambiguous and its application does not lead to absurd consequences, the law shall be applied as written and no further interpretation may be made in search of the intent of the legislature. see Louisiana Associated La.Civ.Code art. 9 (emphasis added); General Contractors, Inc. v. State,

Division of Administration, Office of Purchasing, 95-2105, p.14, (La. 3/8/96); 669 So.2d 1185, 1196. Because interpretation of the

instant statutes as written to mean "actual wages" in cases where such a wage is illegal under the Fair Labor Standards Act would lead to the absurd consequence of a court of this state giving further effect to an illegal wage, this court may look to the reason or reasons that prompted the legislature to enact the law. Keelen v. State Department of Culture and Recreation, 463 So.2d 1287, 1289 (La. 1985); State v. Marsh, 233 La. 388, 393, 96 So.2d 643, 645 (La. 1957). Courts should not adopt a hypertechnical

construction of a statute to deny benefits when a reasonable interpretation can be adopted which will carry out the legislative intent. Guste ex rel. Courville v. Burris, 427 So.2d 1178, 1182 Furthermore, statutes should be interpreted in light Gulf Oil Corp. v. State Mineral Board,

(La. 1983).

of strong public policy.

317 So.2d 576, 585 (La. 1975). The legislative intent and public policy behind the Workers' Compensation Act and the federal minimum wage law are clear. The

Federal Minimum Wage Act is "remedial and humanitarian in purpose and must not be interpreted or applied in a narrow, grudging manner." New Orleans Firefighters Association v. Civil Service

Commission of the City of New Orleans, 422 So.2d 402, 412 (La. 1982); Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Co. v. Muscoda Local No.

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123, 321 U.S. 590, 597, 64 S.Ct. 698, 703, 88 L.Ed. 949, 956 (1944). Furthermore, "[t]he motive and purpose of the legislation

are plainly to make effective the congressional conception of public policy that interstate commerce should not be made the instrument of competition in the distribution of goods produced under substandard labor conditions, which competition is injurious to the commerce and to the states from and to which the commerce flows." New Orleans Firefighters Association, 422 So.2d at 412;

United States v. Darby, 312 U.S. 100, 115, 61 S.Ct. 451, 457, 85 L.Ed. 609, 617 (1941); see also Yates v. KTBS, Inc., 197 So.2d 368, 370 (La. 1967) (Wherein this court noted both "[t]he remedial nature of [the minimum wage] statute and the great public policy which it embodies.") (emphasis added). One of the primary goals or purposes of the Workers'

Compensation Act is similar to the primary purpose of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act--providing protection to workers. Another

of the policies behind the Workers' Compensation Act is to keep the injured employee and his or her family from destitution. Stelly v.

Overhead Door Co. of Baton Rouge, 94-C-0569, p.3 (La. 12/8/94); 646 So.2d 905, 909. Compensation Act, In light of the policies behind the Workers' this court has adopted special rules for

interpreting its provisions such that to effectuate the remedial policy of the Act, its provisions should be liberally construed in favor of the claimant. Pinkins v. Cardinal Wholesale Supply, Inc.,

619 So.2d 52, 55 (La. 1993). With these precepts in mind, we turn our attention to whether "wages" as used in La. R.S. 23:1221(1)(a) should be interpreted to require calculation of benefits based on the federal minimum wage where a claimant's actual weekly wage was in violation of the federal minimum wage laws, i.e., where the claimant was not being paid a legal wage thereunder.

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IV. Analysis Allowing an employer who has failed to pay the wage required under the federal minimum wage laws to further take advantage of its illegal actions by obtaining a judgment of a court of this state awarding compensation benefits calculated on the illegal wage paid is an absurd consequence which the legislature certainly could not have intended. Although failure to pay the legal wage under

the Fair Labor Standards Act constitutes a violation of a federal law, the legislature, had it contemplated this situation, would undoubtedly desire that an award of benefits under state law not perpetuate or further an illegality under federal law. Since the

legislature is presumed never to have intended absurd results and it is the duty of this court to restrict broad statutory language if it is convinced the legislature did not intend such effect, Green v. Louisiana Underwriters Insurance Co., 571 So.2d 610, 613 (La. 1990), we believe the term "wages" as used in La. R.S. 23:1221(1)(a) contemplates that where a claimant was receiving less than he was due under the Fair Labor Standards Act, his benefits under the Workers' Compensation Act must be calculated using the federal minimum wage. To hold otherwise would contradict the

strong public policies behind the Workers' Compensation Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. An interpretation of "wages" that does

not include the federal minimum wage as the floor in calculating workers' compensation benefits would not be in accord with the "great public policy" of this state of upholding minimum wages for employees. Our conclusion is strengthened by the fact that we are

interpreting a workers' compensation statute and are bound to construe it in favor of the claimant. Pinkins, supra. In this

regard, the Workers' Compensation Act, taken as a whole, shows that the legislature intended the Act to favor workers, as evidenced by presumptions in the Act which favor the employee. See, e.g., La.

R.S. 23:1021(10) (Determining average weekly wage by multiplying 5

the average actual hours worked in the four full weeks preceding the date of the accident or forty hours, whichever is greater.); La. R.S. 23:1044 (Presumption of employee status.). As we previously noted herein, one of the primary purposes of the Workers' Compensation Act is to keep the injured employee's family from destitution. To hold that an injured worker's benefits

should be based on his actual wages even when those actual wages fell below the amount of wages that claimant was entitled to under the Fair Labor Standards Act would not protect the worker and could condemn the injured worker and his family to poverty. Moreover,

another purpose of workers' compensation benefits is to compensate an injured worker not only for lost wages, but also for reduced or lost earning capacity. Brooks v. Chicola, 514 So.2d 7 (La. 1987).

If benefits are intended to replace lost earning capacity and the minimum legal earning capacity of any worker, subject to limited exceptions, is the federal minimum wage, it logically follows that the federal minimum wage law is implicit in the term "wages" as it is used in the Act. Our conclusion herein was reached by another court, Trujillo v. Tanuz, 508 P.2d 1332 (N.M. Ct.App. 1973), and is supported by 2 Arthur Larson, Workmen's Compensation Law,

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