The Washington Self-Insurers Association (WSIA) reports that the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services has released its 2016 Workers’ Compensation Premium Rate Ranking Summary. Washington’s workers’ compensation premium rates are ranked the 15^th highest in the nation.

We do not consider the Oregon study to be a good reflection of the costs of Washington’s workers’ compensation system, as we explain in this report (see pages 1–3). The short version is that the study is tailored to Oregon’s industry mix, it doesn’t include the costs of self-insured employers, and Washington’s rates have to be converted from an hourly to a payroll measure.

But we keep an eye on the Oregon study because, as WSIA notes,

Back — way back — in the day, in the late 90s and early years of this millennium, Washington used to rank alongside Oregon in the high thirties out of fifty states for highest premiums, prompting the improbable rallying cry at the Department of Labor & Industries of that era, that the secret sauce of Washington's monopoly made us a "high benefits, low cost" state for workers' comp.

You really can’t say that with a straight face any more. These days, even the flawed measure that is the Oregon study shows that Washington is a high cost state. A better measure of our workers’ compensation costs relative to those in other states is the National Academy of Social Insurance report on workers’ compensation benefits. This year’s report shows that Washington’s workers’ compensation benefit costs are the highest in the country.