What is Workers' Compensation?

Worker's Comp helps protect businesses and their employees from financial loss when an employee is hurt on the job or gets sick from a work-related cause.

Workers’ comp can protect your business and your employees by helping cover:
 
  • Missed wages if your injured or ill worker needs time off from work while they recover.
  • Medical expenses to treat your injured or ill employee.
  • Vocational rehabilitation if your worker needs ongoing care to help them get back to work.
  • Death benefits, like funeral costs, if a worker passes away in a work-related incident.

What doesn't Workers' Compensation cover?

Most workers’ compensation plans do not cover:

  • Injuries received by a fight that an employee started
  • Injuries an employee sustains due to being intoxicated in the workplace
  • Injuries an employee gets intentionally
  • Emotional injuries that are not accompanied by a physical workplace trauma

Is Workers' Compensation Required?

If your business employes one person more than 35 hours, or has more than 3 temporary employees, then the short answer is yes in the state of Michigna. The law requires that every employer subject to the Act must provide some way of assuring that it can pay benefits to its workers should they become injured. Most employers in Michigan provide this security by purchasing an insurance policy from a private insurance company. The insurance company then reports to the bureau that it is providing coverage for that employer. Some employers, however, are "self-insured."

There are severe penalties for the failure of an employer to provide workers' compensation coverage. First of all, if a worker is injured, he or she may sue the employer for civil damages. If the employer was at fault for the injury, this might result in the payment of a great deal of money by the employer.

Secondly, the Bureau of Workers' Disability Compensation actively enforces the Workers' Disability Compensation Act. It has the authority to go into court and seek an order prohibiting the company from employing any persons in their business until such time as proper workers' compensation insurance coverage is obtained. Finally, the employer may be subject to a fine of $1,000 or imprisonment for not less then 30 days nor more than 6 months, or both. Each day for which the employer is uninsured is considered a separate offense.

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