Kris Tefft of the Washington Self-Insurers Association has written a detailed, interesting analysis of the proposed increase in average workers' compensation rates for next year, including how the different pieces of the rate proposal fit together.

I recommend reading it in its entirety, but here's one highlight: He writes about why the break-even point for the supplemental pension fund (the part of the system that pays for cost-of-living adjustments) is so high. One of the reforms to the workers' compensation system that were enacted in 2011 was a suspension of the COLA, for which there was to be no catch-up. A claimant sued, and the Courts found that the suspension was not applicable to all workers.

So the case of Crabb v. Labor & Industries, standing for the unlikely notion that the workers receiving the highest possible time loss payment and only those workers would receive a COLA for 2011 built into the following years, to the exclusion of all other workers receiving lower benefits, is costing the Department about $28 million in back payments and $7 million per year in increased costs, severely undercutting the Legislature’s intent to save money by freezing COLAs.