Workers' Compensation
What is Workers' Compensation?
As a business owner, a critical part of your success depends upon the health and safety of your employees. Workers’ compensation coverage not only provides medical care for your employees’ work-related injuries and illnesses, but also wage replacement benefits, vocational rehabilitation and other assistance.
These benefitys can help:
- Cover the cost of employee medical care
- Replace lost wages if employees take time off from work to recover
- Provide disability benefits
- Give death benefits, like helping pay for a funeral if there is loss of life in a work-related accident
Employees are legally entitled to protection from the financial cost of to an accident that occurs while on the job. If you pay your employees and give them a W-4, your state requires you to carry this insurance. The workers compensation policy will pay the medical bills, a portion of lost income, and protect your company from possible lawsuits filed by injured employees. Owners, officers and partners may be included according to legal structure of your business.
Whether you employ less than 10 people or over 1000, your loss experience, which is collected by the Workers Compensation Bureau, directly impacts your premium by assigning an experience modifier. This is why you need an insurance partner that understands your business and will work with you to control exposures that cause losses.
How Much Is Workers’ Compensation Insurance?
It’s important to remember that workers’ compensation insurance costs vary between businesses. That’s because every small business is unique. So, your cost for carrying workers’ compensation coverage will likely be different than other companies.
Insurance companies use different factors to come up with your workers’ compensation insurance cost. This can include your business’:
- Payroll
- Industry
- Employees’ type of work
- Claims history
The National Council on Compensation Insurance assigns classification codes based on a worker’s type of work and the risk involved. And if your business has a history of claims, this could increase your workers’ compensation rate. Workers’ compensation insurance laws and regulations vary by state.
