Insult to Injury
America’s Vanishing Worker Protections
Driven by big business and insurers, states nationwide are dismantling workers’ compensation, slashing benefits to injured workers and making it more difficult for them to get care. Meanwhile employers are paying the lowest rates for workers’ comp insurance since the 1970s.
Methodology for Workers’ Comp Benefits: How Much is a Limb Worth?
How ProPublica gathered and analyzed state workers’ compensation laws to find out the maximum each states pays per limb.
How Much Is Your Arm Worth? Depends On Where You Work
Each state determines its own workers’ compensation benefits, which means workers in adjoining states can end up with dramatically different compensation for identical injuries.
Workers’ Comp Benefits: How Much is a Limb Worth?
If you suffer a permanent injury on the job, you’re typically entitled to compensation for the damage to your body and your future lost wages. But depending on the state, benefits for the same body part can differ dramatically.
Employers Complain of Rising Premiums, But Workers’ Comp Is at 25-Year Low
Despite the drumbeat of complaints about costs, employers are paying the lowest rates for workers’ compensation insurance than at any time in the past 25 years, even as the costs of health care have increased dramatically.
Workers' Compensation Reforms by State
Over the past decade, states across the country have been unwinding a century-old compact with America’s workers: A guarantee that if you are injured on the job, your employer will pay your medical bills and enough of your wages to help you get by. In all, 33 states have passed laws that reduce benefits, create hurdles to getting medical care or make it more difficult to qualify for workers’ comp.
