The lost earnings methodology used by Dr. Pettingill projects the plaintiff's pre-incident earnings trajectory forward over the applicable work-life, grows the stream at an appropriate wage growth rate, and discounts the future portion to present value at a U.S. Treasury yield matched to the duration of the loss.
Past lost earnings are calculated from actual earnings records — W-2s, 1099s, payroll registers, and federal tax returns — without growth or discounting. Future lost earnings begin from the date of the report and run to the end of the work-life expectancy from the Skoog-Ciecka-Krueger tables or comparable peer-reviewed source.