Workers' comp rate holiday ends New Years Day
Published 12:00 am Monday, December 31, 2007
The six-month rate holiday, during which employers and workers will have saved $315 million in workers’ compensation premiums, will end with the arrival of the New Year on Monday night.
For work performed on Jan. 1 and beyond, employers should resume deducting the workers share of the Medical Aid Fund premium from their employees paychecks.
The partial rate holiday, which began July 1, was made possible by higher-than-expected investment earnings and the Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) continued success at managing health care costs for injured workers. L&Is annual health care inflation rate averages 5.9 percent compared with a 7.7 percent annual average for the nations workers’ comp insurers.
Employers who want to know about how the end of the rate holiday will affect them can click on the rate holiday website or call their L&I Account Manager. His or her phone number is on each employers most recent quarterly statement.
L&I manages the states workers’ compensation system, which insurers about 2.5 million workers and 168,000 employers. That represents about 70 percent of the states workforce. The other 30 percent work for employers who self-insure.
