“It depends on their individual experience with workplace safety – whether they have had a claim or workplace injury or not, and what their risk factor is,” said Rena Shawver, an L&I spokeswoman.
Charts that show industry-by-industry rate change proposals for more than 300 professional categories and risk groups can be downloaded from www.rates.lni.wa.gov . Shawver said that businesses seeking a more detailed assessment of how a hike might affect them should call their individual workers comp account managers.
The proposed rate hike, which would go into effect on Jan. 1, reflects inflation and rising worker wages, and is also part of an effort to strengthen L&I’s workers comp financial reserves. About 100,000 claims are filed through the system every year.
L&I chose not to raise rates for the past two years because of concern over the state of the economy, Shawver said. As a result, the state workers compensation contingency reserves dropped.
“Now we need to look at rebuilding those reserves,” Shawver said. “We’ll do it slowly and predictably, so that those rates will be stable and predictable.”
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