Today’s issue of WorkCompRecap features the California Commission on Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation’s (CHSWC) release of a new report that examines trends in wage and benefit losses for injured workers in the state.
Key findings from the RAND report, Benefits and Earnings Losses for Permanently Disabled Workers in California: Trends Through the Great Recession and Impacts of Recent Reforms included that earnings losses grew much faster than permanent partial disability benefits during the Great Recession, and wage replacement rates fell as a result. California’s Senate Bill 863 has however increased statutory wage replacement rates by 21.4 percentage points, which the report noted is helping to restore benefit adequacy. The report also notes that historically, permanently disabled workers tend to have large and persistent earnings losses.
Find out more (including a link to the free report!) by clicking here!