Workers compensation is one of the first benefits a prospective employee looks into before accepting a job. Why is workers compensation so desirable? Because if the employee sustains an injury on the job that requires them to miss work, workers compensation will cover the financial burden of said employee. Still not sure if workers compensation is a good investment?
Read on to learn more about the benefits of this excellent small-business insurance package.
The first thing to know about workers compensation is that it is not federally mandated to have. Similar to auto insurance, workers comp. is regulated at the state level. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has compiled a list of states that do and do not require workers comp. You can find your state’s laws here.
You might find that your state doesn’t require you to hold this insurance, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. Workers compensations includes:
Lost wages compensation: If an employee cannot return to work due to a work-related injury, this insurance type will pay up to two-thirds of their weekly wages. This will help keep the employee from falling into a financial pit while missing work.
Physical rehabilitation: This branch of workers compensation will cover all approved therapeutic and medical expenses.
Vocational rehabilitation: This branch of workers compensation covers training, specialization, tuition payments and retraining for the position your current injured employee is in. Training will also help to prevent further incidents of injury.
Medical expenses: This branch of workers compensation will cover all approved medical and therapeutic expenses.
Disability benefits: This branch of workers compensation includes four types of disability benefits: Temporary partial, Temporary total, Permanent partial and Permanent total disability. In essence, disability benefits cover the injured person(s) for a set amount of time before they are allowed to return to work.
Death benefits: This branch of workers compensation covers funeral expenses should your employee die in an on-the-job accident or other work-related incident.
No lawsuit: To get the benefits of workers compensation, employees are required to sign a contract that will permanently prevent them from suing you and/or your small business. This means that if your employee is hurt on the job and blames you for the accident, they can’t sue you; all they can do is use their workers compensation.
Keep in mind there are certain loopholes. If you let your employee work off the clock and they get hurt, they can sue you as they were technically working during off-hours. The Huffington Post reports that if you do not keep updated employment agreements, don’t run sufficient background checks or ignore your state’s employment laws (remember, some states require that your small business offer workers compensation) you are at risk of being slapped with a lawsuit by an angry employee. Employees go after their employers when they believe they have been treated unfairly, such as in how they were terminated, if the company didn’t satisfy their contract or if the employer did not respond according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) accordingly.
Your employees are the pillars of your business. The least you can do as their employer is offer them an insurance policy that will take care of them if they’re hurt doing their job. Get a workers compensation package worthy of your staff today with CoverHound.
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Insurance shopping simplified
