2012 Workers' Comp and UI Taxes
Today the Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) and the Employment Security Department announced the workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance tax rates for 2012. For workers’ compensation, there will be no overall increase in premiums. The L&I press release states: In September, the agency proposed a 2.5 percent increase. The decision to hold overall rates […]
23rd of August 2011
WA has Highest Workers' Comp Benefits per Covered Worker
Last week the National Academy of Social Insurance released its report on workers’ compensation for the year 2009. Based on the state-specific data in the report, 2009 benefits paid per covered worker in Washington were the highest in the nation at $857.32. The state with the second highest benefits per covered worker was West Virginia […]
18th of August 2011
Workers' Compensation Reforms in Other States
Apparently Washington wasn’t the only state to make significant changes to its workers’ compensation system this year. An article in Stateline today discusses cost-cutting measures that were enacted in several states. The article also includes a handy sidebar with the key changes made in Montana, Illinois, Oklahoma, Washington, Kansas, and North Carolina. Like Washington, Montana […]
8th of June 2011
Policy Brief: New Reforms to Workers' Compensation
Our wrap-up of the changes made this legislative session to the workers’ compensation system is now posted. It follows several other reports on the subject and the need for reform: Employment Cost Drivers in Washington State, The Time Has Come to Fix Workers’ Compensation, and Mainstreaming Workers’ Compensation. In these reports, we have consistently called […]
23rd of May 2011
Workers' compensation agreement reached
The major policy obstacle to ending the special sessions was lifted Sunday when negotiators reached agreement on workers’ compensation reform. It does less than business wanted, arguable much less, and goes further than union leaders deem acceptable. So, by the common standard that a good compromise is one that leaves all parties at least partially […]
18th of May 2011
House leadership should allow vote on needed workers' comp reform
In my column today, I call on Democratic leaders in the House to bring to the floor legislation that would allow voluntary settlement agreements for workers’ compensation claims. This is not a new theme. An excellent editorial in the Herald of Everett urged the bipartisan majorities in both houses of the Legislature to hold firm […]
12th of May 2011
The Costliness of Washington's Workers' Compensation System
As the debate over workers’ compensation reform continues, a questionable number keeps popping up related to the costs of Washington’s system compared to other states. As we have consistently argued (see here, here, and here), the workers’ compensation system in Washington must be reformed. Washington has the nation’s second highest benefits per covered worker ($778.36 […]
20th of April 2011
Moderate Democrats get workers' compensation reform bill moving again
Yesterday’s move by moderate Democrats in the House to amend the bipartisan workers’ compensation reform bill passed by the Senate has revived prospects for legislative success in the waning days of the legislative session. This is an issue the Research Council has followed closely for a long time. Most recently, we published The Time Has […]
6th of April 2011
The case for workers' comp reform
In my column this morning, I review the U.S. Chamber of Commerce 50-state study of employment costs. Washington ranks in the third tier of states, those with poor employment policies and high costs. (Emily notes here that the chamber’s data are a couple of years old. We’d look worse now.) Jason Hagey at Olympia Business […]
5th of April 2011
New Thrive Washington paper on employment cost drivers published today
The latest in the series of white papers published by the Washington Research Council and Washington Roundtable examines workers’ compensation reform and unemployment insurance. In particular, the report urges lawmakers to act this session to fix the state’s broken workers’ comp system. Here’s the link to Employment Cost Drivers in Washington State: The Case for […]