New York State Workers Compensation

New York State Workers Compensation Board The Purpose of the NYS Workers Compensation Board This year, marks the centennial anniversary of the famous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that occurred in New York City on March 25, 1911. One-hundred-forty-six employees died in that fire and one of the consequences of that tragedy was the reform of employment laws intended to protect the health and safety of workers in New York State.

One of the most important aspects of those changes was the establishment of the New York State Workers Compensation Board that ensures that workers injured or disabled on their jobs will receive monetary compensation to pay for their medical and related expenses and money to support themselves and their families while they are unable to work because of their injuries.

The New York State Workers Compensation Board requires the employers of almost 8 million people to maintain insurance coverage that will provide financial coverage and compensation in the event they are injured on the job. Prior to this legal requirement, workers who suffered injuries or disability on the job were typically left without any means of financial support. When they tried to sue their employers, their claims were routinely rejected when their employers argued that the employees had assumed the risks inherent in their employment.

In other circumstances, employers were able to avoid compensating their injured employees by raising the legal defenses of negligence or contributory negligence to the extent that the injuries where the fault of the injured employees. Under the New York State Workers Compensation Board, workers compensation is "no-fault." In principle, that means that injured employees need not sue their employers for compensation for their injuries or to prove that they were the employer's fault.

On one hand, that also limits the total amount of recovery to which they are entitled but it guarantees recovery to millions of workers without the need to engage in legal disputes that could result in no award or that could delay any award for a long time. Setting Rates for Businesses The New York State Workers Compensation Board utilizes several different mechanisms to set compensation rates.

According to the Average Weekly Wage (AWW), total disability benefit rates for most claimants is calculated based on the value of one week's average annual earnings as reflected in data from the prior year's payroll. According to the AWW for disability benefits claims, calculations are based on the earning of the disabled employee during the eight weeks preceding his or.