The Washington Workmen's Compensation Act from the Employers' Viewpoint

Authors

Lowell P. Mickelwait

Abstract

Although this state has had a workmen's compensation act since 1911, the employers generally have, until recently, paid but slight attention to the administration of the act. They have proceeded on the theory that the accident experience of the particular employer had little or no relation to the amount of contributions required to be made by that employer under the act. The situation is very different today. Every well-advised employer now realizes that, in the long run, his industrial insurance premiums will tend to approximate the cost of the accidents occurring in his own plant. By the maintenance of high safety standards or other accident prevention measures the employer may reduce substantially his accident cost experience, thereby receiving a material reduction in his premiums payable to the Department of Labor & Industries. This so-called "merit-rating" plan constitutes the outstanding feature of the present law.

First Page

132

Recommended Citation

Lowell P. Mickelwait, State Bar Journal, The Washington Workmen's Compensation Act from the Employers' Viewpoint, 15 Wash. L. Rev. & St. B.J. 132 (1940).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wlr/vol15/iss2/8