The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services proposed a decrease in the state’s workers’ compensation rates next year, which would make it the sixth year in a row that rates in Oregon have gone down. According to DCBS director Cameron Smith, this is because of Oregon employers and employees who have taken a comprehensive approach to making workplaces safer and keeping costs low.

The proposed average rate next year will be $1.12 per $100 of payroll for workers’ compensation insurance, down from the 2018 rate of $1.23. This covers workers’ compensation claims costs, assessments and insurer profit expenses.

Part of the success of Oregon’s workers’ comp program comes from the Workers’ Compensation Division’s efforts to keep medical cost under control, help injured workers get back to work sooner and enforcing requirements that employers carry insurance. Oregon’s OSHA has also focused on preventing on-the-job injuries with enforcement and outreach efforts.

Under the DCBS proposal for next year the pure premium rate would drop by an average 9.7 percent and will have declined by an average of 40 percent between 2013 and 2019. The pure premium is the main factor behind the annual costs changes. Individual employers may see different changes in their payments depending on the employer’s industry, claims experience and payroll since the proposed decrease is only an average.

Employers will see changes when they renew their policies in 2019 but the changes will be effective January 1, 2019. Oregon has the seventh least expensive rates in 2016, an improvement from 2014 when they were the ninth least expensive rates.

Read the press release here and find out more information Oregon’s workers’ comp costs and on pure premium rate changes.