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Washington Workers� Comp Compliance

December 4th, 2006 Posted by Mark

The Washington state workers’ comp system is primarily designed to deliver to employees approved medical care in case they suffer a work-related injury, as well as any hospital care they may need if that injury is relatively serious. The system also delivers to those injured workers compensation for lost wages should they not be able to return to the job after the injury for a time.

As in the other states that we have looked at in the workers’ comp world, in Washington the system is built upon the premise that the employers have to cover for their employees. And as with other state systems that we’ve looked at, the employers get something in return for providing workers’ comp coverage to the employees: Employers in most cases cannot then be sued by their employees if an injury occurs because of potential negligence or liability.

Washington has one of the more unique systems in the workers’ comp world, however, because employers buy their workers’ comp coverage through the state’s workers comp division, which has the nickname the L&I. This state division also is responsible for managing all of the claims that come in from the state’s employers, and for dispersing money and benefits out to the needy employers and employees.

All of this pay out is paid for by the premiums that Washington employers have to pay to the state L&I department. All employers have to work through this workers’ comp system in Washington. It starts for a new business as soon as they apply to become a new business. If they plan to hire employees, they must sign up an application with the L&I division so that they can get a Master Business License and open up a workers’ comp account.

If they are an existing business that is taking on new employees, then the employer must change their Master Business License to cover those additional employees in their workers’ comp program.