Occupational hearing loss develops gradually from long-term exposure to high noise levels, common in factories, construction sites, warehouses, and airports. It can take years to notice: difficulty following conversations, ringing in the ears (tinnitus), and turning volumes higher and higher.

Traumatic hearing loss comes from a single loud event, such as an explosion, gunshot, or machinery malfunction, and can cause immediate and permanent damage.

Under Missouri’s workers’ compensation law, Chapter 287, hearing loss that arises from workplace conditions qualifies as an occupational disease, which means the gradual kind is covered even though there was never a single accident to report.

A compensable hearing loss claim can include medical care such as evaluation and hearing aids, and wage benefits:

• Temporary total disability at two-thirds of your average weekly wage if the condition keeps you off work.
• Permanent partial disability based on the degree of impairment, with total hearing loss in an ear valued by statute at 49 weeks of compensation per ear (Section 287.190 RSMo).
• Permanent total disability with lifetime benefits in the most severe cases.

The audiogram drives the math: the measured percentage of loss applies against the scheduled weeks, and it feeds the same factors behind what any Missouri workers’ comp case is worth.

Insurers frequently deny hearing loss claims by arguing the loss came from aging rather than workplace noise, that symptoms were not reported in time, or that the loss is not severe enough to qualify.

Those arguments are answered with evidence: an audiologist’s evaluation and a second medical opinion, workplace noise records and coworker testimony, and a work history that ties the exposure to the job. A denied claim is the start of the fight, not the end of it.

In 2025 alone, our firm spent over $700,000 on expert witnesses. Hearing loss cases are proven the same way they are won: physicians who connect the work incident to the injury, and preparation that treats every disputed claim as one that may need a judge.

Our firm handled roughly 1 in 4 of recent workers’ compensation trials at the St. Louis Division of Workers’ Compensation, out of hundreds of attorneys representing Missouri workers. Insurers know which firms will actually try a case, and it changes how they negotiate.

When the claims administrator knows a trial firm is on the file, refusals of care get reconsidered.

Does Missouri workers’ comp cover gradual hearing loss?

Yes. Hearing loss from long-term workplace noise exposure qualifies as an occupational disease under Missouri law. You do not need a single accident; you need medical evidence and a work history connecting the loss to the job.

Is tinnitus covered?

Ringing in the ears that results from workplace noise or acoustic trauma can be part of the claim when it is documented by a medical evaluation, and it is often paired with measurable hearing loss on the audiogram.

What is a hearing loss claim worth?

It depends on the measured degree of loss, whether one or both ears are affected, your wage rate, and the medical care involved. Missouri values total hearing loss in an ear at 49 weeks of compensation, so the audiogram percentage does most of the math.

I retired years after the noise exposure. Can I still file?

Occupational disease claims have their own timing rules that generally run from when the condition and its work connection became reasonably discoverable, not from the last day on the job. Talk to an attorney before assuming it is too late. Every case is different; results depend on the facts.