Today’s issue of WorkCompRecap features the release of a new report from the National Academy of Social Insurance that found that workers’ compensation employer costs as a share of payroll declined in 2015, reversing a four-year trend, and benefits as a share of payroll fell for the fourth straight year.
The report noted that with the economic recovery’s increase in employees covered by workers’ comp, benefits per $100 of payroll fell from $0.92 in 2014 to $0.86 in 2015, the lowest level since 1980. From 2011-2015, benefits as a share of payroll fell in all but three states, continuing a national trend of decline that began in the 1990s. Employer costs per $100 of payroll ticked down to $1.32 in 2015, the fourth lowest level since 1980. Researchers noted that part of the decline in benefits and costs is that workplaces are getting safer, with both the incidence and severity of work-related injuries having declined steadily since 1990, and injuries resulting in days away from work reaching a 25-year low in 2015.
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