The floor's claims
Stocking and unloading trucks produce back and shoulder injuries — both sudden lifts and the built-over-years kind; ladder and step-stool falls put knees, ankles, and heads at risk; box cutters do to retail hands what knives do to kitchen hands; and cashiering is quiet repetitive-strain work — thousands of scans a shift. Slips on just-mopped floors injure workers as reliably as customers; the difference is that your claim runs through comp, not a lawsuit.
Part-time hours, full-size trap
Wage benefits are a fraction of your average weekly wage — and retail schedules are built to make that average slippery. Three things to check on any AWW calculation: the look-back period (a computation from your slowest quarter understates a holiday-heavy year); concurrent employment (many states add wages from your second job into the AWW when your injury takes you out of both — retail workers with two jobs routinely lose this money by not mentioning job #2); and overtime and seasonal peaks, which usually belong in the average. Ask the adjuster in writing which weeks and which jobs were counted, then run the calculator with the real numbers.
Violence at work is a work injury
An assault during a robbery, a violent customer, a crowd surge — injuries from violence at work are compensable in every state, and that includes the psychological aftermath in many of them: PTSD after an armed robbery is among the most widely accepted "mental" claims because the triggering event is extraordinary and documented. Report both the physical and the psychological symptoms early — the police report helps the comp claim, and a psych claim reported months late meets more resistance than one reported the same week.
Seasonal and holiday workers count too
Hired for the holidays and hurt in week two? Coverage doesn't require tenure — it starts your first minute on the clock. The wage math gets interesting: states use different methods for short-tenure workers (similar-employee comparisons, annualization), and the method chosen can swing your benefit substantially. If the offered rate looks like it was computed from two weeks of part-time checks, that's exactly the number to question — in writing, with the Getting Paid answers open in the other tab.