Oregon’s workers compensation system is the go-to oracle on how costs vary from state to state. Its latest national survey, released this month, found that California, which long had the nation’s highest costs as a percentage of payroll, had dropped to No. 2 behind New York.
California’s current rate in the survey, 2.87 percent, is down from 3.24 percent in the 2016 survey, but still two-thirds higher than the national median of 1.7 percent. That differential translates into about $7 billion a year in higher California employer costs.
Obviously, working in California is not inherently more dangerous than in other states and employer groups, such as the Workers Compensation Action Network, partially attribute higher costs to fraud by greedy lawyers and doctors who recruit workers to file spurious claims, especially for “cumulative trauma,” disabilities supposedly caused by years of work, not a single incident.
Data from the Workers Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau show that Los Angeles is the epicenter of such claims and while some fraudsters have been prosecuted, authorities believe that the practice is still widespread in the region.
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