How COVID Impact on Employees’ Compensation Claims Has Diversified by State, Business

The percentage of COVID-19 claims among all employee compensation claims has changed dramatically by state and occupation, as has the decline in non-COVID claims, new research shows.

The percentage of COVID-19 claims among all paid compensation claims of all workers ranged from 1 percent in Kansas and South Carolina, 34 percent in New Jersey, and 42 percent in Massachusetts in Q2 2020 (WCRI), according to research by the Workers Compensation Research Institute.

WCRI also found that the number of COVID-19 claims among workers in the service industry has increased significantly (85 percent in Q2 2020), particularly in assisted living facilities, hospitals, and doctor and dentist offices.

A number of factors may have contributed to the variation, including the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak, presumption laws, and compensation rules.

The WCRI study “The early influence of COVID-19 on the composition of employee compensation claims” examines how the massive slowdown in economic activity at the beginning of the pandemic affected employee compensation and the extent to which employees have suffered COVID-19 claims. Compensation system.

This study covers claims with injury data in the first two quarters of 2019 and 2020, with payments for medical or income benefits in 27 states in the first two quarters of each year. The researchers analyzed paid entitlements for private sector employees and local public employees.

Source: WCRI

“This report will shed some bright spots on the early effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on workers ‘compensation and help policymakers and stakeholders track changes in key dimensions of the COVID-19 impact on workers’ compensation,” said John Ruser, president and CEO of WCRI.

In the first quarter of 2020, compared to Q1 2019, WCRI saw a decrease in the number of non-COVID-19 applications in all states, ranging from a 2 percent decrease in Arkansas to a 20 percent decrease in Connecticut. Compared to the second quarters of both years, the decrease in the volume of claims for damages by non-COVID-19 workers was even greater, decreasing by at least 30 percent in the vast majority of states and up to 50 percent in Massachusetts.

For sick leave claims longer than seven working days (including COVID-19 sick leave claims), the study found even greater differences in changes in the amount of employee compensation claims, with some states reporting increases and some decreases in the number of claims. For the second quarter, the change in the number of claims for damages from 2019 to 2020 varied from a 27 percent decrease in Nevada to a 63 percent increase in Massachusetts.

Overall, there have been huge differences in the impact of the pandemic on different industries due to lockdowns, massive economic slowdown and remote working. Compared to Q2 20202 versus the same period in 2019, the largest decrease in the number of non-COVID-19 employee compensation claims for salaried employees and skilled workers was 57 percent. The smallest decrease was 25 percent for construction workers.

The 27 states surveyed represent 68 percent of employee compensation benefits paid in the United States. They are Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

The authors of this study are Dr. Olesya Fomenko and Dr. John Ruser.

WCRI is an independent, not-for-profit research organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The Study: The Early Impact of COVID-19 on the Composition of Workers Compensation Claims

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