The Department of Labor & Industries announced Monday that workers' compensation insurance premiums will rise an average of 7.6 percent next year, confirming what had been expected since September when officials first announced they would seek the rate hike.
Two of the biggest reasons for the higher rate were health-care inflation and wage inflation, up 8.5 percent and 3.4 percent respectively last year, officials said.
"I do understand how difficult the economic environment is right now and wanted to keep the increase as low as possible," L&I Director Judy Schurke said in a press release.
Schurke said she has convened a group of business and labor leaders at Gov. Chris Gregoire's direction to look for ways to control long-term costs to the workers' comp system, including pensions.
The Department of Labor & Industries is also looking for ways to reduce operations costs while protecting benefits to injured workers, according to the release.
AWB has called for reform of the workers' comp system, saying that any rate increase in this precarious economic climate is a burden for struggling businesses.
