The Oregon Department of Consumer & Business Services is proposing to change certain workers' compensation rates for 2020. (News release, Oregon Department of Consumer & Business Services.)

For the seventh consecutive year, the "pure premium" rate is scheduled to decrease. Oregon employers would see an average 8.4% decrease in pure premium workers' compensation costs for calendar year 2020. With this change, the pure premium will have decreased by an average of 45% for the periods of 2013–2020.

The pure premium rate decrease would be effective January 1, 2020, but employers would see the changes when they renew their policies in 2020. The change to the premium assessment would be effective January 1, 2020. The combination of the proposed changes would result in the average employer paying $1.02 per $100 of payroll for claims costs and assessments, down from $1.11 for 2019.

While some rates will decrease, others are proposed to increase, as follows:

• Pure premium. As stated above, the pure premium would decrease an average 8.4% in 2020. Pure premium is the portion of the premium employers pay insurers to cover anticipated claims costs for job-related injuries and deaths. The pure premium rate is the base premium reflecting the actual cost of workplace injury-and-illness claims before insurer administrative expenses and profit are added. The decreased rate represents an average across all types of businesses. Rates for specific businesses and industry groups may be higher or lower, depending on group and individual claim records. Employers pay their premiums directly to their insurers. Premiums do not fund state programs or services.

• Premium assessment. The assessment to cover the costs of administering the workers' compensation programs would increase from 7.8% to 8.4% in 2020, to offset the decrease in the pure premium. Self-insured employers and public-sector self-insured employer groups would pay 8.5%, up from 8.0% for 2019. Private-sector self-insured employer groups would pay at 8.9%, up from 8.8% for 2019.

Workers' compensation insurers, self-insured employers and self-ensured employer groups pay this assessment to the state. Insurers can pass the cost of the assessment on to the employers they cover but must identify that cost as a separate line item on billing statements.

• Workers' Benefit Fund assessment. This assessment would decrease to 2.2 cents per hour worked for 2020, down from 2.4 cents per hour for 2019. The benefit fund assessment pays for return-to-work programs, provides increased benefits over time for workers who are permanently and totally disabled, and gives benefits to families of workers who die from workplace injuries or diseases.

Employers pay at least half of this assessment and deduct no more than half of it from workers' wages. Employers then submit the total to the state through Oregon's Combined Payroll-Tax Reporting System.

These are preliminary rates and are subject to change during the rulemaking process. The final rates should be released in November 2019. Go here for a summary of the proposed changes.

For more information on workers' compensation costs in Oregon, go here.

———————————————

———————————————
ATTACHMENT

EY Payroll News Flash