Welcome to 2026. Workers’ Comp Executive is starting its 36th year of covering California’s workers’ comp industry. Here is our annual look back at the biggest stories from the prior twelve months. In many instances, the top stories of 2025 brought closure to issues that had populated this annual review for several years, while other …
Industry concern over a proposed $6 increase in the hourly wage threshold for three construction industry dual wage classifications has forced the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau to delay action on the proposal until January, as it works to garner support for its plan. A Bureau committee, though, did approve a proposal that seeks to …
The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau is rolling out a new set of identifiers for labor contractors, farm labor contractors, and Professional Employer Organizations. The identifiers will appear in items such as classification inspection reports, experience rating forms, and risk summary reports. The codes will also appear as class codes, although they are informational only. …
The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau’s Classification and Rating Committee will review a proposal next week to boost the hourly wage threshold for dual wage classifications by $2 to $6 per hour (see chart). The update, if ultimately recommended and adopted, would be the first in two years. The Bureau is a private organization with …
The California Department of Insurance Administrative Hearing Bureau will hold an evidentiary hearing this month as it attempts to resolve a dispute over how timecards affect the proper assignment of a very small electrical contractor’s payroll. The carrier is standing behind its reassignment of payroll to the low-wage/high-rate class because the company’s cards allegedly didn’t …
The National Council on Compensation Insurance released a study that found there is up to a 40% decline in workers’ comp claim frequency among certain groups of office workers who had access to remote work. The study examined claim frequency from 2019 to 2022 and observed that this group experienced a significantly larger decline in …
A Florida-based staffing company with extensive operations in California’s light industrial and factory settings is asking a federal district court in California’s Central District to block a $51 million demand for collateral on its workers’ comp policy. Full Steam Staffing filed the complaint earlier this month, alleging that Chubb Limited retaliated against it for ending …