The Department of Labor and Industries is proposing that average workers’ compensation rates decrease by 2.5 percent in 2018. If the proposal is adopted in December, it will be the first average rate reduction since 2007. (Rates increased by an average of 0.7 percent in 2017 and 2 percent in 2016.)

The announcement from L&I credits “small rate increases in recent years and the improved economy” and “workplace safety and health improvements” for building reserves and allowing for a rate decrease.

Workers’ compensation benefit costs in Washington are the highest in the country, so the possibility that rates could be reduced on average is a nice change.