Understanding Workers Compensation Insurance

As an insurance agent I find that a lot of business owners are confused about how workers compensation insurance works. Workers Comp is a highly regulated insurance program which protects employees and employers in the event of work place injury. If an employee is hurt on the job, workers compensation will pay their medical expenses and up to 66% of their loss wages. If the worker dies because of a work related accident a death benefit will be paid to the beneficiaries.

So who needs to have workers comp? In the State of Florida, if you are a Construction Company you must have workers comp if you have one or more employee than is not an officer of the company working for you. In an industry other than construction if you have four or more full or part time employees you must have workers compensation, this is excluding officers of the corporation or partnership. If you are a farmer, and have five regular employees and/or twelve or more other workers for seasonal agriculture labor lasting thirty days or more, you must have workers comp.

Money can be saved for the company through the use of safety programs and drug free workplace programs. Another way for companies to get money back is through dividend programs. Many workers comp insurance companies offer a dividend program, which will give you money back at the end of the year based on your loss ratio. This is usually on a sliding scale and can be pretty significant. If you are currently not receiving a drug free work place credit, safety credit or a dividend you should contact your agent and see how you can. If you are not receiving a dividend, safety credit or drug free workplace credit and would like to save money on your insurance, please contact me, Andrew Cohn at Wilson, Washburn & Forster Insurance.