BATON ROUGE – Set to begin on May 1, 2019, employers throughout the state of Louisiana will see a decrease in their workers’ compensation premium rates.
The decrease in workers’ compensation premium rates was a result of The National Council of Compensation Insurance (NCCI) recommendation to reduce premium rates by 5.6 percent. Over the past 10 years, employers in Louisiana have seen a cumulative drop of 34 percent in their workers’ compensation premium rates. When expanding the data over the past 20 years, that figure jumps to 50 percent.
“Lower premium payments for businesses are a win for every Louisiana resident,” said Louisiana Workforce Commission Secretary Ava Dejoie. “With Louisiana businesses able to make lower premium payments without forsaking workplace safety, employers are able to reinvest these savings back into their workforce. All this would not have been possible without Governor John Bel Edwards continued leadership the past few years. As it stands, Louisiana has remained one of the safest states in which to work, and the governor’s efforts in the business community at large has helped ensure this remains so.”
The upcoming rate reduction is a result of a variety of factors that influences employer premium rates. One factor, workplace safety, has helped Louisiana maintain the rate reductions employers have benefitted from. A recent Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) report showed that Louisiana has the lowest non-fatal work related injury rate in the country, second only to Washington, D. C. The state’s rate of non-fatal accidents and injuries has continually decreased over the past 15 years, and remains among the lowest rates in the nation when compared to the national averages compiled since 2007.
