Price

This case requires us to decide the proper method for calculating an injured employee’s average annual earnings under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (“LHWCA”), 33 U.S.C. § 901 et seq. (2001), and to what extent the LHWCA limits an employee’s total disability compensation from multiple awards when the employee has received a permanent partial disability award and a subsequent permanent total disability award. We adhere to our holding in Matulic v. Director, OWCP, 154 F.3d 1052, 1058 (9th Cir.1998), that calculating an employee’s average annual earnings under 33 U.S.C. § 910 (a) does not excessively overcompensate him when he has worked more than 75 percent of the workdays in the year preceding his injury. Furthermore, we hold that when an increase in an employee’s average weekly wage between the time of a prior permanent partial disability and subsequent permanent total disability is not caused by a change in his wage-earning capacity, permitting him to retain the full amount of both awards does not result in any “double dipping.” We also hold that 33 U.S.C. § 906 (b)(1) delineates the maximum compensation that an employee may receive from each disability award,…