The injuries that define the trade
Falls from ladders, scaffolds, and roofs lead everything — followed by struck-by injuries (falling tools, swinging loads, vehicles), electrocutions, trench collapses, and the slow-motion injuries: backs worn down by decades of lifting, knees destroyed by concrete work, hearing lost a decibel at a time. The acute injuries get reported; the cumulative ones get worked through — which is exactly backwards for protecting a claim. Report both.
The 1099 trap — construction's signature problem
Construction leads America in misclassification — workers paid by the hour, told when and where to work, using the company's equipment, and labeled "independent contractors" so nobody pays comp premiums. The label doesn't decide anything: the law looks at who controls the work. If you were hurt and told "you're 1099, you have no comp," do not take that as the final answer — take the misclassification check, and know that many states put uninsured "contractors" back under the general contractor's coverage. Subcontractor chains don't erase rights; they usually just hide who owes them.
Multi-employer sites: where third-party claims live
Comp bars suing your own employer — but on a construction site, half the hazards belong to someone else: the GC who controlled the site, another sub whose rigging failed, the equipment manufacturer, the delivery driver. Injuries caused by a third party support a separate lawsuit alongside your comp claim — with pain-and-suffering damages comp never pays. New York goes further: its "scaffold law" (Labor Law 240) makes owners and GCs absolutely liable for many height-related falls. Every serious construction injury deserves the question: whose equipment, whose site, whose negligence?
Running the claim itself
Everything on this platform applies with extra urgency here: report in writing the same day (crews scatter — get witness names before the pour ends), name every body part, and mind your state's clocks with the Deadline Checker. Wage math matters double in construction: per-diems, prevailing-wage jobs, overtime, and seasonal patterns all belong in your average weekly wage — a slow-season snapshot is not your average.