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Showing posts with label Oregon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oregon. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Workers compensation rates to decline in Oregon in 2014

Oregon has been notorious in limiting benefits for injured workers. Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.oregonlive.com


Oregon employers next year, on average, will pay $1.63 per $100 of payroll for workers' compensation insurance. That figure covers the pure premium, the premium assessment, the Workers' Benefit Fund assessment and insurer profit and expenses. Figures above have been adjusted to reflect the 2012 mix of employment and payroll. Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services
Following two years of increases, state officials say workers' compensation insurance rates should decline for most employers in 2014.

The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services
said last week that the "pure premium" - the portion set by the state - will drop on average by 7.6 percent.
That does not include insurer expenses and profit. It also does not include smaller taxes that cover the state's administrative costs, reserves for self-insured employers and employer groups and a fund for injured worker benefits and return-to-work programs.

Including those costs, premiums will average $1.63 per $100 of payroll in 2014, down from $1.75 in 2013, a 6.9 percent decrease, state officials said.

Actual rates will vary by industry, the insurer and by individual employer claim experience and payroll size.

But the construction and manufacturing sectors, both historically hazardous industries, should see drops of 11 percent and 8.5 percent respectively, said John Shilts, the state's workers' compensation division administrator.

"The performance of construction and manufacturingin...
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Sunday, September 15, 2013

Minimum wage in California to be $10 an hour

As wages rise so do rates of payment under workers compensation laws. Likewise, workers' compensationinsurance premiums increase also.Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nbcnews.com

Minimum wage workers in California would earn $10 an hour by 2016 under a bill passed by the legislature on Thursday, making the state likely to become the first in the nation to commit to such a high rate.

The bill, which Governor Jerry Brown said he will sign, would increase the minimum wage for hourly workers in the most populous U.S. state from the current rate of $8 an hour to $9 in July 2014, and to $10 by January 2016.

"The minimum wage has not kept pace with rising costs," Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement. "This legislation is overdue and will help families that are struggling in this harsh economy."
Brown, protective of the state's tenuous economic recovery, had initially opposed the bill but agreed to support it on Wednesday after leaders of both houses of the Democratic-led state legislature agreed to postpone the effective date of the raise until 2016.

The measure won support from Democrats, passing the Senate on a vote of 26-11 and the Assembly on a vote of 51-25. But it was opposed by many Republicans who said it would hurt small businesses and ultimately cost some low-wage workers their jobs.

"The impact of this is not on huge employers," said Republican Senator Jim Nielsen, who represents much of the far northern part of the state near the Oregon border. "It is on the smaller employer, the mom and pop operation."

To get the bill passed, leaders in the more conservative state Assembly had to win...
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