Section 5. Method of calculating wages
“Monthly wages” means the amount of wages deemed to be payable for a month’s service (whether the wages are payable by the month or by whatever other period or at piece rates), calculated as follows:
(a) Where the employee has, during a continuous period of not less than twelve months immediately preceding the accident, been in the service of the employer liable to pay compensation, the monthly wages shall be one-twelfth of the total wages which fell due for payment to him in the last twelve months of that period.
(b) Where the whole of the continuous period of service immediately preceding the accident was less than one month, the monthly wages shall be the average monthly amount earned, during the twelve months immediately preceding the accident, by an employee employed on the same work by the same employer, or, if there was none, by an employee employed on similar work in the same locality.
(c) In other cases (including where it is not possible for want of necessary information to calculate wages under clause (b)), the monthly wages shall be thirty times the total wages earned in respect of the last continuous period of service immediately preceding the accident from the employer liable to pay compensation, divided by the number of days comprising that period.
Explanation.—A period of service is deemed continuous for this purpose unless interrupted by a period of absence from work exceeding fourteen days.
