Washington Proposes 4.9% Workers’ Comp Rate Hike for 2027
- The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries is proposing an average 4.9% increase in the state’s workers’ compensation insurance rates for 2027, which would raise coverage costs by about $1.44 a week per full-time employee, with employers covering roughly 75% of the premium and workers 25%.
- The proposed increase is meant to help offset the rising cost of wage replacement and medical care benefits for injured workers, though L&I is not passing along the full projected cost increase, instead drawing on the workers’ compensation contingency reserve to cover the gap.
- L&I Director Joel Sacks said the agency has worked to keep rates steady and predictable while maintaining a healthy fund, noting the reserve is designed to protect employers and workers from sudden rate spikes.
- Unlike many states that charge premiums as a percentage of payroll, Washington bases workers’ compensation contributions on hours worked, meaning rising wages don’t automatically generate more premium revenue. That’s why L&I periodically raises rates to keep pace with wage and medical cost growth
Court Tosses Claim after Worker’s Doctor Can’t Link Injury to Work Fall
- A Tennessee court denied a truck driver’s workers’ comp claim against Trucking company Adebco, Inc. on Sept. 21 after his own physician couldn’t tie his hip and knee injuries to an Oct. 14, 2025, fall from a ladder on his truck cab, finding he was unlikely to meet the state’s threshold requiring a work incident to be the primary cause of a compensable injury.
- The driver testified he slipped and rolled onto his right hip during the incident, but he didn’t mention it when his supervisor confronted him about using a walker for two weeks, and he texted about a twisted knee five days later without mentioning his hip.
- He later admitted he filed a workers’ comp claim mainly to pressure Adebco into scheduling him a doctor’s appointment, not because he believed the injury was compensable. When he saw his own physician in early November, he described three years of progressive knee pain and chronic hip discomfort without mentioning a work-related fall.
- The physician diagnosed severe femoral head collapse from avascular necrosis that likely developed over years, and testified the 2025 fall was “less likely” to have caused the condition, though it may have triggered a symptom flare-up.
NCCI Tracks Surge in Portable Benefits, Worker Classification Bills
- The National Council on Compensation Insurance was tracking 1,102 state and federal bills and 210 proposed workers’ compensation regulations as of July 31, with 167 bills enacted and 90 regulations adopted.
- It also noted a surge in worker classification legislation driven largely by portable benefits bills for independent contractors. Idaho, Louisiana and West Virginia enacted portable benefits legislation tied to workers’ compensation, while North Carolina’s bills remain pending. Meanwhile, Georgia, Kansas, New Hampshire and Wyoming enacted portable benefits laws without a workers’ comp component.
- Mental injury legislation continued advancing, with Virginia enacting H.B. 1313 making post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depressive disorder claims compensable for law enforcement and firefighters without an accompanying physical injury, and Minnesota enacting a bill that adds psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners to the list of professionals authorized to diagnose workers’ comp-related PTSD.