The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services announced that the state’s workers’ comp costs are going to drop for the seventh year in a row.

Under a proposal by the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS) next year, employers will pay on average $1.02 per $100 of payroll for workers’ comp insurance. This is down from $1.11 per $100 of payroll in 2019. That number covers workers’ compensation claims costs, assessments and insurer profit and expenses.

The pure premium rate, the base rate insurers use to determine how much employers must pay for medical claims and lost wages, will drop by 8.4 percent under the proposal. It will have declined by 45 percent between 2013 to 2020. The 8.4 percent is an average so individual employers may see different changes, and pure premium does not take into account varying expenses and profit of insurers.

The decline in costs reflects efforts by the Workers’ Compensation Division and Oregon OSHA to better manage the system. The WCD enforces requirements that employers carry insurance and keeps medical costs under control. OSHA enforces on-the-job safety and health rules, identifies hazards to be corrected and advises employers about how to boost worker safety and health.

“The steady decline in workers’ compensation costs is about more than just the numbers,” said Cameron Smith, DCBS director. “It demonstrates the hard work for employers, workers, insurers and government to maintain essential worker protection programs and robust benefits for injured workers while keeping business costs low.”

Read more from Oregon’s Department of Consumer and Business Services.