102.48 Death benefit, continued. If no person who survives the deceased employee is wholly dependent upon the deceased employee for support, partial dependency and death benefits therefor shall be as follows:

(1) An unestranged surviving parent or parents to whose support the deceased has contributed less than $500 in the 52 weeks next preceding the injury causing death shall receive a death benefit of $6,500. If the parents are not living together, the department or the division shall divide this sum in such proportion as the department or division considers to be just, considering their ages and other facts bearing on dependency.

(2) In all other cases the death benefit shall be such sum as the department or the division determines to represent fairly and justly the aid to support which the dependent might reasonably have anticipated from the deceased employee but for the injury. To establish anticipation of support and dependency, it shall not be essential that the deceased employee made any contribution to support. The aggregate benefits in that case shall not exceed twice the average annual earnings of the deceased or 4 times the contributions of the deceased to the support of his or her dependents during the year immediately preceding the deceased employee's death, whichever amount is the greater. In no event shall the aggregate benefits in that case exceed the amount that would accrue to a person who is solely and wholly dependent. When there is more than one partial dependent the weekly benefit shall be apportioned according to their relative dependency. The term “support" as used in ss. 102.42 to 102.63 shall include contributions to the capital fund of the dependents for their necessary comfort.

(3) Except as otherwise provided, a death benefit, other than burial expenses, shall be paid in weekly installments corresponding in amount to two-thirds of the weekly earnings of the employee, until otherwise ordered by the department or the division.

History: 1975 c. 147; 1979 c. 278; 1989 a. 64; 1993 a. 492; 2015 a. 55.