A method for power control in a wireless communication system. An initial transmission of a data frame in the reverse link is received, and a first energy level of the data frame is measured. An energy deficit in the first energy level is then measured if the first energy level is insufficient to correctly decode the data frame, so that when the data frame is retransmitted with a second energy level equal to a difference between the first energy level and the energy deficit, the data frame can be correctly decoded with combined energy of the first energy level and the second energy level.