Kentucky Workers’ Compensation Costs Drop for 4th Straight Year

Kentucky workers’ compensation costs are continuing to drop, with latest figures showing an average reduction of 6.4 percent.

Insurance Commissioner Sharon P. Clark has approved the industry’s loss cost reduction for the 598 industrial classes used in Kentucky effective Oct. 1. These classes include manufacturing, office and clerical, contracting, and goods and services. For coal classes, underground mining costs dropped 20.4 percent while surface mining decreased 13.1 percent.

Clark said this is the fourth consecutive years that costs have dropped.

Most insurance carriers use the loss cost filing, which is prepared annually on behalf of the industry by the advisory organization, the National Council on Compensation Insurance Inc.

“Kentucky employers and employees alike should view this as very good news,” said Clark. “Not only do employers benefit since workers’ compensation insurance is a large cost of doing business, but we are seeing evidence of safer working conditions for hardworking Kentuckians.”

Clark said the annual report shows a continuing decline in the number of workplace injuries and the severity of those claims.