Workers' compensation is supposed to take care of workers who are injured on the job. But around 60 percent of injured workers never even apply for workers' comp, and after years of weakening policies,
workers' comp pays for just a small share of the expenses injured workers face:
State legislatures and courts have made it increasingly difficult for injured workers to receive the payments for lost wages and medical expenses that they deserve. As a result of this cost-shifting, workers’ compensation payments cover only a small fraction (about 21 percent) of lost wages and medical costs of work injuries and illnesses; workers, their families and their private health insurance pay for nearly 63 percent of these costs, with taxpayers shouldering the remaining 16 percent.
Yes, workers pay half of the costs of being injured
at work themselves, and the government pays nearly as much as the workers' comp insurance that is supposed to represent bosses taking responsibility for what goes on in their businesses.
It's not just workers with minor scratches who don't get workers' comp, either:
... a review of all recordable work-related amputations in Massachusetts found that less than 50 percent of the cases received any workers’ compensation benefits. A similar California study found that one-third of workers who had amputations that were recorded by their employers had not received workers’ compensation benefits.
Those are blue states that should have relatively strong worker protections (relatively being relative, of course) and yet a third or even half of people with work-related
amputations aren't getting benefits. That's a sign of a terribly broken system. And with workers losing 31 percent of their earnings over the 10 years following a serious workplace injury, this is a problem with huge economic implications.
(Via We Party Patriots)