134
Stevens, J., dissenting
by ERISA if it "specifically refers" to each component of the damages calculation. Ante, at 130.1
Workers' compensation laws provide a substitute for tort actions by employees against their employers. They typically base the amount of the compensation award on the level of the employee's earnings at the time of the injury. In the District of Columbia's workers' compensation law, for example, an employee's "average weekly wages" provide the basic standard for computing the award regardless of the nature of the injury. D. C. Code Ann. § 36-308 (1988 and Supp. 1992). Because an employee who receives health insurance benefits typically has a correspondingly reduced average weekly wage, the District decided to supplement the standard level of workers' compensation with a component reflecting any health insurance benefits the worker receives. The Court seems to be holding today that such a supplement may never be measured by the level of the employee's health insurance coverage—at least if the state statutes or regulations specifically refer to that component of the calculation.
It is true, as the Court points out, that in Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 463 U. S. 85, 96-97 (1983), we stated that a law "related to" an employee benefit plan, "in the normal sense of the phrase, if it has a connection with or reference to such a plan." It is also true that we have repeatedly quoted that language in later opinions.2 Indeed, it has been
1 Similar arguments have been considered and rejected in several cases. See Martori Bros. Distributors v. James-Massengale, 781 F. 2d 1349, 1358-1359 (CA9), modified, 791 F. 2d 799, cert. denied, 479 U. S. 949 (1986); Teper v. Park West Galleries, Inc., 431 Mich. 202, 216, 427 N. W. 2d 535, 541 (1988); Schultz v. National Coalition of Hispanic Mental Health and Human Services Organizations, 678 F. Supp. 936, 938 (DC 1988); Jaskilka v. Carpenter Technology Corp., 757 F. Supp. 175, 178 (Conn. 1991).
2 See Ingersoll-Rand Co. v. McClendon, 498 U. S. 133, 138-139 (1990); FMC Corp. v. Holliday, 498 U. S. 52, 58-59 (1990); Mackey v. Lanier Collection Agency & Service, Inc., 486 U. S. 825, 829 (1988); Fort Halifax Packing Co. v. Coyne, 482 U. S. 1, 11 (1987); Pilot Life Ins. Co. v. Dedeaux,
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