Some of the findings from the report included:
- In 2004, California represented 11.7 percent of all jobs covered by workers’ comp in the United States and 13.2 percent of covered wages.
- California --the largest jurisdiction in the country--had 14.7 million covered workers, $653 billion in covered wages, and $12.5 billion in benefit payments for 2004 calendar year. That’s nearly four-times the benefit total for New York, which ranked second with $3.3 billion in benefit payments--just ahead of the federal government, which ranked third with just under $3.3 billion in payments for its workers’ comp programs.
- Benefit payments under the nation’s comp programs totaled $56 billion--$26.1 billion for medical care and $29.9 billion in cash benefits to injured workers--up 2.3 percent from 2003.
California is the fifth largest economy in the world so it is going to rank high in most economic categories. Nonetheless $12.5 billion in benefit payments for 2004 is a staggering amount of money for just workers comp benefits alone. An awful lot of people are being injured on the job to warrant such a large amount.
If you live in California are there frequent injuries on the job where you work?
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