Sec. 1. 39-A MRSA §215, as enacted by PL 1991, c. 885, Pt. A, §8 and affected by §§9 to 11, is repealed and the following enacted in its place:

§215.__Death benefits

1.__Death of employee.__If death results from the injury of an employee, the employer shall pay or cause to be paid to the dependents of the employee at the time of the injury, a weekly payment equal to 80% of the employee's after-tax average weekly wage, but not more than the maximum benefit under section 211, from the date of death until the time provided for in subsection 2.__This weekly compensation must be adjusted annually so that it continues to have the same percentage relationship to the state average weekly wage, as computed by the Maine Unemployment Insurance Commission, as it did at the time of the injury, but the annual adjustment may not exceed the lesser of 5% or the actual percentage increase in the state average weekly wage for the previous year.__The annual adjustment required by this section must be made on the anniversary date of the injury, except when the effect of the maximum under section 211 is to reduce the amount of compensation to which the claimant would otherwise be entitled, the adjustment must be made annually on July 1st.

2.__Determination of recipients.__Compensation is payable to the dependent spouse of an employee until the death of the spouse or such time that the spouse becomes a dependent of another person.__The compensation that previously was payable to the dependent spouse must be paid to any child of the deceased employee, including an adopted child or stepchild under 18 years of age or over that age if physically or mentally incapacitated from earning a wage and who was dependent upon the spouse for support.__Compensation must be divided equally among all of the dependent children.__Except for those dependents who are physically or mentally incapacitated from earning a wage, compensation ceases when the child reaches 18 years of age or is married before reaching that age.

3.__Partial dependency.__If the employee leaves dependents only partly dependent upon the employee's earnings for support at the time of the employee's injury, the employer shall pay those dependents a weekly compensation equal to the same percentage of support that the employer pays to dependents under subsection 2.__ The percentage of wages that the employee paid to those partial dependents in the year prior to the employee's death must be used to calculate the amount of the employer's contribution.