Death Doesn't Pay

Thanks to Cindy Hartman for posting this link to the Deadliest Jobs article on Facebook.  I had already planned to do a review of workers' compensation rates for 2014 in Indiana.  Now I can tailor the discussion of the most costly workers' compensation job classifications to the deadliest job classifications.

The overall rate filing for Indiana was a 7.7% decrease.  That is an average however, and rates for individual classifications could have reduced as much as 35% or increased by 20%.  Look for a post in the future about those categories with the largest increase in rate from 2013 to 2014.

For now let's focus on those classes of business that carry the highest rate per $100 of payroll in Indiana.

Iron or Steel Erection	55.38
Stevedoring Containerized Freight	31.87
Painting Ship Hulls	23.49
Logging or Tree Removal	17.62
Shipbuilding	16.67
Stevedoring	16.31
Athletic Park: Contact Sports	15.42
Shipbuilding Naval	13.31
Ship Repair Conversion	12.60
Logging or Tree Removal Non Mechanized	12.16

The only ones from this list that show up on the deadliest jobs are: Iron or Steel Erection at #5 and Logging at #1.  Why wouldn't more of the top ten deadliest jobs have higher workers' compensation rates?  Why would the deadliest job have a rate so much lower than the 5th deadliest job?  It might be that death doesn't pay.  

The medical cost of caring for an injured worker tend to drive the overall cost of any claim. An instantaneous death has a defined benefit amount that is typically much less than the medical costs combined with lost wages from a serious injury.

While death is tragic, so is a debilitating injury.  More important to look at in this infographic on the deadliest jobs is the causes of fatal work injuries.  Helping to avoid these situations in your business can go a long way towards keeping workers safe and keeping insurance costs lower.