California

California remains an innovator in Workers Compensation. The Golden State sustained a Workers Comp crisis in the 1990s that required the State Fund to write almost all of the policies in the state.

The reason that California has its own category in the articles is the state always sits at the forefront of Worker’s Compensation laws.  The state produces so much of the cutting-edge WC laws and rules that seem to lead the nation.

The recent Dynamex Supreme Court decision and laws such as Assembly Bill (AB) 5 caused the elimination of most of the independent contractors.

AB 5 required most of the state’s employers to only have employees.  The gig-worker economy shrank almost overnight.

Prop 22 was approved by a majority of the voters that kept Uber and Lyft drivers under the gig-worker independent contractor status.  Most other contractors were still considered employees after the passage of AB 5.

The State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) wrote almost all of the WC coverage from the early 1990s until 2015 due to the lack of insurance carriers in the state.

SCIF still writes a large portion of coverage.  SCIF is not a risk pool option.  They are classified as a competitive state fund.   SCIF is the insurer of last resort for employers that cannot find coverage with any other carrier due to adverse risk or insurance market dynamics.

California’s rating bureau is the Workers Comp Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB).  The WCIRB is the second-largest worker’s comp insurance rating bureau behind only NCCI in the number of insureds that they provide WC E-Mods or X-Mods as part of California’s Workers’ Compensation insurance process.

Archives

Subscribe

Get the latest workers' comp news FREE!

Name
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.