You spent years on job sites — jackhammers, concrete saws, pile drivers, generators, the constant roar of heavy equipment. You got used to the noise. You raised your voice to be heard, and after a while you stopped noticing how loud it was.
Then one day you realize you are asking people to repeat themselves. The TV keeps getting louder. Conversations in a crowded room turn to mush. Your family notices before you do.
Noise-induced hearing loss is one of the most common — and most overlooked — injuries in construction. It happens so gradually that most workers never think of it as a work injury at all. But in New York, occupational hearing loss is a compensable workers' compensation claim, and many construction workers are owed a cash award for it — often years later, and often even after they have retired.
Hearing Loss Is a Work Injury — Not Just "Getting Old"
The carrier would love for you to believe your hearing loss is simply age. New York law does not let them get away with that.
Noise-induced hearing loss is treated as an occupational disease — an injury caused by the conditions of your work over time, rather than a single accident. New York has a specific set of statutes just for it, and they are written to protect workers in loud trades.
Construction is one of the highest-risk trades because so much of the equipment runs well above safe noise levels. Under OSHA's construction standard, the permissible noise exposure limit is 90 decibels averaged over an 8-hour day — and a single concrete saw or jackhammer can push well past that.
Importantly, the carrier cannot reduce your award just because you are older. New York's hearing-loss rules specifically say that no allowance is made for the effect of age (presbycusis) on your hearing. "You're just getting old" is not a defense they are allowed to use.
The Rule That Surprises Construction Workers: Step Away From the Noise First
Here is the part almost nobody expects. In New York, your hearing-loss claim does not fully mature until you have been removed from the harmful noise for three consecutive months — either because you left that job, changed to a quieter role, or your employer provided effective hearing protection.
The last day of that three-month period becomes your "date of disablement" — the date the law treats as your date of accident for the claim.
This is why hearing-loss claims are so closely tied to leaving a trade or retiring. For a worker still pounding concrete every day, the three-month clock has not even started. But once you retire, switch to a desk role, or move to a quieter site, the window opens. If you are approaching the end of your career, the timing of your hearing-loss claim interacts with your other benefits — we cover that in detail in our guide to how retirement timing affects your workers' comp.
To qualify at all, you generally need to have worked in harmful noise in New York for at least 90 days. For a career construction worker, that threshold is met many times over.
What Is a Hearing Loss Claim Worth?
Occupational hearing loss is paid as a schedule loss of use (SLU) award — a fixed cash award based on the percentage of hearing you have lost. It is not ongoing weekly wage replacement; it is a lump measure of compensation for the permanent loss.
New York's schedule sets the maximums:
- Complete loss of hearing in both ears: 150 weeks of compensation
- Complete loss of hearing in one ear: 60 weeks of compensation
Your actual award is that number of weeks multiplied by your percentage of hearing loss, paid at your workers' comp weekly rate. The percentage is measured by an audiogram (a standard hearing test) under a formula set by New York regulation:
- Your hearing is tested at four pitches and averaged.
- If that average is 25 decibels or better, the law treats it as no compensable loss — this is the "low fence."
- For every decibel above 25, you are credited with 1.5% of hearing loss, reaching 100% at about 92 decibels.
- When both ears are involved, the better ear is weighted more heavily than the worse ear in a combined calculation.
Three things make this award especially worth pursuing. First, being fitted with a hearing aid does not reduce your percentage of loss — the award is based on your actual, uncorrected hearing, so getting help for your hearing does not cost you your claim. Second, the hearing-loss award is in addition to any pension or other retirement benefits you receive — the carrier cannot use your pension to offset it. Third, once your claim is established, the workers' comp carrier pays for your hearing aids — and their replacement and upkeep — for the rest of your life, on top of the cash award.
Prior Jobs and Prior Loss: Who Pays
Many construction workers spent decades bouncing between employers, unions, and sites. That does not defeat your claim.
Under New York law, the last employer who exposed you to harmful noise is responsible for the award. If earlier employers also contributed, the carriers fight amongst themselves over who pays what — but that is their problem, not yours. Apportionment between employers does not reduce what you collect.
Deadlines: Later Than You Think — But Do Not Wait
Because the clock is tied to when you leave the noise, hearing-loss deadlines work differently from most work injuries — and often in the worker's favor.
You generally have two years to file, measured from your date of disablement or from when you knew (or should have known) your hearing loss was work-related — whichever is later. New York also provides a hearing-loss safety valve: even if the two-year window has passed, a claim may still be allowed if it is filed within 90 days after you learn your hearing loss is connected to your job.
The practical takeaway: a retired construction worker who left the trade years ago may still have a live hearing-loss claim. But the safest move is to get evaluated and file as soon as you suspect your hearing was damaged on the job.
What About the Ringing — Tinnitus?
Many construction workers have constant ringing or buzzing in their ears along with the hearing loss. Under New York's regulation, tinnitus is not counted in the percentage-of-loss calculation that sets your schedule award — it does not, by itself, increase your hearing-loss percentage. That surprises people, and some sources get it wrong.
But do not let the ringing talk you out of calling. Tinnitus is one of the most common early signs of noise damage, and many workers who notice it turn out to also have measurable, compensable hearing loss they never realized they had — the only way to know is to have your hearing tested. And where the ringing is tied to a compensable injury, your treatment for it can still be covered, even though it does not change the size of the schedule award. If your ears ring after years of loud work, it is worth finding out where you stand.
When Hearing Loss Is Not the Only Claim
Hearing loss rarely travels alone. Long-tenured trades workers — including MTA and transit workers and those in the asbestos trades — frequently carry more than one claim: a hearing-loss claim sitting alongside the repetitive-strain and musculoskeletal injuries that build up over years on the tools, or toxic-exposure claims from asbestos and other jobsite hazards. If you have one, it is worth reviewing whether you have others.
And if your time on site also involved a serious accident — a fall, a crane or scaffold failure, an electrocution — you may have far more than a workers' comp claim. When someone other than your employer caused a catastrophic injury, New York's Labor Law 240 can open a separate third-party case worth well beyond what comp alone provides. Hearing loss is often the injury that first brings a construction worker in the door; a full review sometimes uncovers much more.
Talk to a Firm That Knows Workers' Comp Inside and Out
At Schotter Millican, LLP, workers' compensation is the core of our practice, and we handle it every day. We have spent decades representing New York's construction workers, tradespeople, and union members — and we know how to build an occupational hearing-loss claim, from the audiogram to the schedule award, and how to defeat the carrier's "it's just age" defense. And because construction cases so often carry more than a comp claim — a fall, a scaffold or crane failure, a defective machine — we make sure any third-party case is coordinated with experienced personal-injury counsel, so nothing gets left on the table.
There is no cost to find out where you stand.
Key Takeaways
- Noise-induced hearing loss is a compensable workers' comp occupational disease in New York — not just "getting old," and age is not deducted from your award
- Your claim matures after you have been removed from the harmful noise for three consecutive months; that last day becomes your date of disablement — which is why hearing-loss claims are closely tied to leaving the trade or retiring
- The award is a schedule loss of use payment — up to 150 weeks for both ears, 60 weeks for one ear — based on an audiogram; a hearing aid does not reduce it, it is paid on top of your pension, and the carrier covers your hearing aids for life once the claim is established
- The last noisy employer pays, and disputes between employers do not reduce your recovery
- You generally have two years to file, measured from disablement or from when you knew the loss was work-related — so many retired workers still qualify
- Do not wait: get evaluated and file as soon as you suspect your hearing was damaged on the job
Worked in loud construction and losing your hearing? Find out what your claim is worth. Call (718) 770-3708 for a free consultation. No fee unless we win.
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