These New Bills Can Spike Your Workers’ Comp Premiums

Illinois and New Jersey are advancing legislation that significantly alters how worker classification is determined for contractors, particularly impacting workers’ compensation requirements.
These proposals aim to curb employee misclassification by enforcing stricter tests, likely forcing businesses to classify more workers as employees rather than independent contractors.
If enacted, companies will face higher labor costs, including mandatory workers’ compensation insurance premiums and payroll taxes.
These legislative shifts reflect a growing, multi-state effort to tighten labor standards and increase protections for gig and contract workers.

The West Virginia Supreme Court upheld an increased permanent partial disability award for a worker’s leg injury, affirming a three percent additional impairment rating.
The employer challenged the Board of Review’s decision based on conflicting medical evidence presented in the case.
However, the court ruled that equally weighted, conflicting medical evaluations must be resolved in the claimant’s favor.
This decision reinforces the state’s statutory requirement for resolving evidentiary conflicts in workers’ compensation claims.

The Tennessee Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board denied an employee’s request to add a neck evaluation to an existing shoulder claim due to unproven causation.
The employee sought to include the neck injury ten months after the initial incident.
The court ruled that adding a new body part requires a physician to affirmatively link the condition to the workplace accident.
A conditional recommendation lacked the necessary medical evidence to establish legal causation.