WHAT IS 'EXERTION LEVEL' IN A DISABILITY CASE?

I've written several posts about how important it is to translate medical problems into vocational restrictions. Why your impairment interferes with your ability to work. These days, Social Security will always have their own vocational expert (jobs expert) present at any hearing for an adult.

One area that is referred to by vocational experts is the physical or exertional level of work. Specifically, the vocational expert will be asked to give the exertional level of either past work or other jobs in the economy. These exertional levels determine the physical demands of a certain jobs including their requirements of sitting, standing, walking, lifting, carrying, pushing, and pulling.

These exertional levels are broken down into 5 different levels - sedentary, light, medium, heavy, and very heavy.

• Sedentary works involves lifting no more than 10 pounds at a time and the majority of the time at work is spent sitting. For example, these types of jobs could include desk jobs such as office clerk or receptionist.

• Light work involves lifting no more than 20 pounds at a time with frequent lifting of items up to 10 pounds; generally, light work also means you stand majority of the day (up to 6 hours out of an 8-hour day). This type of work could include work as a cashier, for example.

• Medium work involves lifting no more than 50 pounds at a time with frequent lifting of items up to 25 pounds; majority of the time at work is spent standing on the job as well.

• Finally, heavy work and very heavy work involves lifting no more than 100 pounds at a time with frequent lifting of items up to 50 pounds; majority of time is spent standing on the job as well. Lifting more than 100 pounds is called "very heavy work."

These exertion levels are very important because they are not only used in vocational expert testimony to classify jobs but are used in several different steps in the 5-step disability evaluation process. They are used to evaluate whether the claimant can perform their past work, and if not, whether they can perform other work in the national economy.

It is critical that past work experience be detailed carefully in the application and in the hearing. It is also critical to translate specific medical problems into functional problems: difficulty siting, standing, walking, bending, lifting, etc. The more specific you can be, the better. A claimant may also use non-exertional (mental) limitations of function to help prove he/she cannot work.