A prosperous business always acknowledges the power of its employees – the ones that make the business grow. The Worker’s Compensation Insurance is not only something required by the law, but something that you should be doing even if you weren’t forced to. Because you care about your employees and their health!
Insurance for Your Employees:
Put more specifically, this form of insurance is the one that replaces the employee’s wage and helps with medical treatment in case of injures that take place in the course of employment. On the other hand, the employee gives up on his right to sue your company.
The provisioning can function in multiple ways, according to the jurisdiction: it can function as disability insurance (and the employee receives the equivalent of his weekly wage), as a life insurance (and the benefits are received by the persons who were dependent of the employee that died during employment) or as a health insurance (case in which it pays for the medical expenses the employee would otherwise have to meet on his/ her own).
More Information on the Worker’s Insurance Across the Globe
The worker’s compensation law was approved in Europe and Oceania at first, but it soon came to the United States. While most of the countries now have such a law, it differs from one place to another. For example, in Germany, the law was enacted in 1884 and it ensured paid wages for the injured employee for 13 weeks. After that, only fully disabled employees received compensation equal to 67% of their wages.
Soon after Germany, similar laws were passed in Austria, Norway and Finland.
In the United Kingdom, the government believes that there is no need for a strict scheme of insurance for employees, such as in the United States, for example. Any employee can pay his/ her own health insurance, and the only thing the employers are required to purchase is the Employers Liability Insurance.
In the United States of America, Georgia and Alabama were the first states to pass Employer Liability Acts. By 1907, 26 other states had followed the example, and by 1949, all the states had enacted some form of law that protects the workers.
Even if they are different across the Globe, and even across the United States itself, laws protecting employees and employers in case of work injuries have the same grounds: the employer must pay an insurance, otherwise, the state will oblige him to pay medical care/ wage/ death expenses out of the pocket AND pay penalties enforced by the state law.
Purchasing the best insurance package is important for your business, especially since you can save an important sum of money by choosing a package that is less expensive, but still covers all of your needs. Before rushing into “action”, inform yourself on the specific regulations imposed by each state, because what can stand in one state can be completely forbidden in another. Other than that, make sure you plan ahead for everything and that you know exactly what you are paying for (know which injuries are covered, know which injuries are most encountered, and so on).
This post was written in conjunction with: workers-compensation-savings.com