Running your own business might be the one thing that most people admire about you. It doesn’t matter whether someone helped you along your journey or an achievement you made on your own. You probably look at progress and are filled with pride. Therefore, doing things that benefit your business positively should be top of your priorities. Among the things that can help your business entirely is taking up a workman’s compensation insurance.
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What exactly is the workman’s compensation insurance?
Your employees are an asset to your business, and to help you attain your business goals, they come into contact with various challenges ranging from injuries to illness. Some employers might feel like injuries sustained at work are just some of the challenges an employee has to go through hence not seeing the need for a workman’s compensation insurance. It is important to note that compensation of injured employees is among the rights employees across the United States enjoy. Despite compensation being a legal requirement, it is only human that the people who help you achieve your dreams get some form of help when the work they do for you ends up harming them. Therefore, workman’s compensation insurance is a form of insurance meant to help you as an employer avoid negligence suits instituted by your employees injured at your workplace while dispensing their lawfully allocated duties.
What is the legal status of the workman’s compensation insurance?
99% of States in the US require that employers take up workman’s compensation insurance unless exempted by law. Therefore as an employer, taking up the insurance is not a question of doing or doesn’t but a mandatory requirement of state laws. In some states like Alabama, you can only be classified as one of the employers exempted from taking up a workman’s compensation insurance if;
- You employ on a casual and non-permanent basis.
- You are a domestic workers’ employer.
- Your business has less than five employees.
- You are a Government Agency that falls under set exemptions.
Injuries and sickness covered by workman’s compensation insurance
There are various injuries that your workman’s compensation insurance will cover, and this can range from soft tissue injuries to fractures causing either temporary or permanent disability. If your business deals with the production of toxic products like chemicals, there is a possibility of your employees developing diseases associated with the kind of work they do. Therefore, the insurance cover also covers such sicknesses. One factor that needs to be present apart from the presence of an injury is the proof that the injury or illness results from work duties dispensed within the workplace or in the cause of duty.
What the employees stand to benefit
As much as a workman’s compensation insurance is a mandatory requirement for your business, it also happens to be a humanitarian act from your end. By taking up an insurance cover, you get to ensure that in the event of any adverse effects caused by work-related injuries, your employee can get the following benefits;
- Payment for any expenses incurred at the hospital
- A monthly stipend in the event the employee is not able to return to work.
- Salaries for the time the employee is out recovering until recovery in full and resuming of their regular duties
- Physiotherapy
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How does a workman’s compensation insurance benefit you as an employer?
You will never know how much a workman’s compensation cover can help you until you witness your insurer making a hefty payment to a single injured employee. Now take the same scenario and imagine where several employees sustain injuries in the cause of dispensing their work-related tasks. By bad luck, they all suffer permanent or temporary disabilities. Without a workman’s compensation insurance, you will most definitely face a compensation lawsuit. If the employee has evidence that can help prove a balance of probability that their injuries were sustained within the cause of their employment, getting to counter such evidence might be very difficult. Therefore choosing to defend your suit might be futile as the evidence against you will already have shown your liability. In the end, you will be subjected to paying the judgment reward out of your pocket. Also, you will have lost time and money defending your suit. The point being put across here is that workman’s compensation insurance is among the most important security forms you have as an employer against negligence lawsuits instituted by your employees.
The Cost of Workman’s Compensation Insurance
The cost of a workman’s compensation insurance is based on the state where your business is situated. To get the right quotation or find out how to calculate what you need to pay, it is always advisable that you talk to an agent. Usually, the calculation is done at a particular percentage for every $100. In short, for every $100 you pay to your employees, a percentage of that amount is meant to go towards workman’s compensation insurance.
Why work with an agent?
An agent will give you the exact breakdown of the amount of money you are to pay. First, your agent will sit down with you and make thorough inquiries about the number of employees you have, the wages they receive, and the annual returns you get to make as a business. Remember, unlike other forms of insurance, the cost of workman’s compensation insurance is state-regulated; therefore, with an agent helping you find the correct payable amount, you also get to abide by the set rules and standards.