What Is Workers' Compensation?

In the United States, accidents kill two people and injure 330 others every ten minutes. For persons 38 years of age and younger, accidents are the leading cause of death, according to the National Safety Council. Work-related accidents in 1992 caused 8,500 deaths and injured 3.3 million people. During that year, work-related accidents cost $115.9 billion in medical bills and insurance payments.

These numbers apply to you.

Every job carries with it some degree of "risk," or what the dictionary defines as the chance of becoming injured. The key to a safe working environment is limiting the risk so as to limit the chance of injury.

Your employer may do his or her best to reduce on-the-job hazards and to create a safe work environment. Nevertheless, as the cliche goes: "accidents will happen."

Workers' compensation laws place accident responsibility on the employer. By definition, workers' compensation makes industry responsible for compensating workers (or their survivors) injured or killed on the job.

No matter who is at fault or who is to blame for the accident, an injured worker has rights to receive compensation for the occupational injury.

For the most part, employers pay workers' compensation premiums on the basis that the cost of work-related accidents is part of the expense of doing business. Under workers' compensation, employers take on a substantial portion of an injured worker's financial loss.

Workers' compensation, however, is not a financial safety net that takes the place of a full-time job. The insurance does not pay back 100 percent of your wages. The insurance does not cover compensatory claims such as pain and suffering, loss of on-the-job dignity and confidence plus other "quality of life" issues.

If you are injured at work, or if your work irritates a pre-existing physical problem or you develop a disease or illness from your job, you are entitled to workers' compensation benefits.

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