Does your business need workers compensation insurance? Yes. Every business with employees needs some kind of workers compensation insurance, so if you're starting a business, you'll need to include the expense of workers compensation in your business plan. This is because states have decided that the overall expense of medical and legal bills can be greatly reduced by having every business buy workers compensation insurance. If our world were accident free, this wouldn't be necessary. But that's not reality and accidents happen. In the manufacturing or construction businesses, accidents can be very expensive. Workers compensation provides a standard way to deal with accidents and the possible lawsuits that may or may not arise.
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One of the benefits to a business of having workers compensation in place is that you'll know exactly what is covered and by how much. This makes your liability for accidents clear from the start, so you'll know what your risk is. It also helps your employees because they, too, know exactly what they can expect to be compensated if an accident occurs. They know that their medical bills will be covered and they'll know how much of their pay check is covered while they're out of work. Employees also know that coverage will kick in right away, rather than being delayed by any legal procedures.
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Workers compensation arose from the union movement as a general way to limit liability in accident cases. Going way back in history, employers might try to avoid all liability for accidents. Employees tried to turn that tide with the union movement by making employers completely responsible for workmans comp. Neither of these points was a valid solution to the problem of providing some kind of workers compensation to employees when accidents happen. Thus, laws were writtern to reduce the risk on both sides and provide services to the victims of an accident. Employers shouldn't be made out to be the victims of vengeful employees any more than the employees should be held responsible for employers unsafe workmans conditions.
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So in general, workers compensation laws are set on a state by state basis to spread the liability for accidents and ensure that employers and employees are treated fairly in a settlement. Employers often have a choice of workers compensation plans to choose from that they can provide to their employees. And employees can opt out of taking workers compensation if they believe that their employers are completely responsible for an accident.
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So employers might not want to get the cheapest workers compensation plan with its minimal coverage since better coverage may make employees less likely to opt out of the plan and sue. The options that employers have are all laid out by the state, so you'll have to do some research on the services provided by each of those options. It will be time well spent, however, as one bad accident can ruin relations between employers and employees. And that cost more than workers compensation.
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So in general, workers compensation laws are set on a state by state basis to spread the liability for accidents and ensure that employers and employees are treated fairly in a settlement..... Learn more at compensation and Workers Compensation Westminster