Introduction
When you get hurt on the job there will be workers compensation claims to fill out. This is in place so any employee will have their medical bills taken care of while they are off work and will still get wages. It assures the company that even though you were hurt on the job and it was their fault in exchange for not suing them they are letting you have workers compensation.
Compensation before laws
There have not always been laws in effect for workers compensation claims. Years ago when someone was hurt on the job they would have to depend on the tort or civil law for pursuing the employer. If you lived in the UK then you would have to actually be able to prove it was the employer’s fault that you got hurt. The employer usually won the cases and the employee would find themselves out of a job.
Compensation laws
With compensation laws in place it benefits both the employee and the employer. When an employee receives an injury on the job and has to file workers compensation claims there is already an amount set in place for the claim. When the laws went into effect there were already set amounts for certain injuries in place. The amounts were decided upon if the employee was hurt how hard it would be for them to find another job. An example would be say the little finger got cut off. To some people this may not be a big deal but for a person that sits and types all day that finger being gone affects them dramatically. If there is no set amount in place for an injury that was filed using workers compensation claims then both parties will be forced to court so an amount can be determined.
Compensation in United States
Compensation laws first started being redone in 1917 because of an employee in New York working for the Railway. As soon as it was proven that compensation does not affect anyone’s constitutional rights the states started scrambling to put a law in place.
Up until 1917 the only thing any employee could do if they were insured was sue the employer. Even then everything had to be proven and that was not an easy task to do.
Even though the state of Maryland was the first to set their worker’s compensation laws in place it did not take long for other states to follow. Every state in the United States had laws in place for compensation by 1949.
Keep in mind though things are done differently in every state. Most states require that employers are enrolled in a worker’s compensation insurance program. This helps to protect a business if one of their employees gets hurt while working. The state of Texas does not force their businesses to carry worker’s compensation insurance. Instead they are required to just carry insurance in case an employee is hurt. The state says employees and businesses are able to work together and come to agreements that everyone is happy with instead of filing any workers compensation claims.
