Surprising to many, Wisconsin was one of the very first states to adapt state statutes requiring most employers to buy workers compensation insurance coverage. Workers comp is like two policies in one. The first part is a medical insurance policy that covers medical costs in case an employee gets hurt. The second part is a disability income insurance policy that helps employees pay their bills if they’re not able to work for an extended amount of time.
To be clear, the amount of money employers pay for workers compensation insurance isn’t a small amount and this type of coverage isn’t cheap. The primary driver of premium cost is the fact it isn’t underwritten and every employee, regardless of health, qualifies. Furthermore, Wisconsin isn’t competitive regarding premium cost for any given class code.
A class code is the code assigned to any and all types of work activities. For example, a roofer will have one code, and a desk office worker will have another. As you can imagine, the rates are very different depending on the workers comp class code. Roofers might cost an employer well over 30% of payroll, while an office staff employee might be less than 1%. Which brings me to my next point about the cost of workers compensation in Eau Claire, Menomonie, Chippewa Falls, or really, anywhere in Wisconsin, and that’s the fact the insurance premium cost is based on the gross payroll for employees.
What is a Workers’ Compensation Insurance Ghost Policy?
In order to know what your cost will be as an employer looking to buy workers’ compensation, I’ll ask what type of work and services your company performs, how many workers you have or intend to have in the next 12 months, and how much your total gross payroll will cost. My staff or myself will create a workers compensation insurance proposal for you, or perhaps I suggest an alternative that may save you money.
To get started with workers’ compensation, feel free to give me a call, or if you like, fill out the following form, and we’ll respond with either some follow up questions and/or pricing for your business workers compensation. And don’t feel like you need to know all the answers to submit the form. Often, employers aren’t sure of one or more items, and that’s where I can help assist you.