Injury claims affect employee paychecks

Many of you are often trying to find ways to get employees to do their job as safely as they can.

One approach should be explaining that accidents personally cost all of us in our paychecks. Part of the insurance premium that Labor & Industries charges companies also is passed on to the employees in their paychecks.  If your workplace is accident-prone, everyone there will ‘feel’ it in their take-home pay.

It benefits us all to work safely to keep workers’ compensation insurance rates as low as possible. This also can earn your workplace accident-free discounts (just like your car insurance).  Lower rates mean that the employee portion of the premium will also go down. If you see a fellow employee doing something that’s unsafe, point it out to them because their accident will cost all employees including those who don’t get hurt on the job.

Keeping a safe work environment gives you more take-home pay.

Here is a link to an example of how the rate change affects take-home pay.

WR Safety Specialist Rick Means is available to members to help draw up safety plans and suggest topics for safety meetings. Contact him at 360-943-9198 x18, or [email protected]