Workers' Compensation

Workers’ Compensation and Older Workers

After rising sharply in the 1980s, workers’ compensation costs and benefits declined during the 1990s. The recent decline may reflect, in part, a decline in the availability and adequacy of these benefits. Workers in the second half of their work lives are particularly likely to be affected by these changes. Although workers’ compensation continues to compensate workers for acute short-term inj...

The battle over workers' compensation.

Faced with lower profits and rapidly increasing premium costs in the 1980s, insurers and employer organizations cleverly parlayed the public perception of worker fraud and abuse in the workers' compensation system (that they helped to create) into massive legislative changes. Over the last decade, state legislators and governors, Republican and Democrat alike, have jumped on this bandwagon, one...

Current trends in workers' compensation.

Recent trends in workers' compensation.

Workers' compensation provides cash benefits and medical care to employees who are injured on the job and survivor benefits to the dependents of workers whose deaths result from work-related incidents. Workers' compensation programs in the 50 states and the District of Columbia and federal programs together paid $56.0 billion in medical and cash benefits in 2004, an increase of 2.3 percent over...

Workers' compensation program experience, 1981.

Although the workers' compensation program covered more workers and paid more in benefits in 1981 than it did a year earlier, the rise in both of these indicators was slightly smaller than those in 1980 and considerably smaller than the increases that took place in the 1970's. Employers paid $22.9 billion in premiums in 1981, less than 3 percent more than the previous year and the smallest annu...