In this recent decision, the D.C. Court of Appeals held that the Compensation Review Board erred in instructing the ALJ to ignore a housing allowance paid by the claimant's employer, when determining the claimant's average weekly wage ("AWW").
D.C. Code Section 32-1511(b) provides that calculation of an employee's AWW should include reasonable amounts for board and lodging received from an employer. While the claimant in this underlyign case had only received a few months of the yearly housing allowance paid by the claimant's emploeyr, the court held that an accurate estimate of the claimant's AWW would include both the claimant's salary and the monthly amount of the employer-paid housing allowance.
Young v. District of Columbia Dep't of Emp. Servs., 2013 D.C. App. LEXIS 775 (November 7, 2013)