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Retaining Your Most Experienced Workers
As older employees consider retirement, employers, like you, often face a crossroads. Is this employee replaceable? Is there a way you can better meet their needs to help them remain at your company longer?
It’s often worth it to retain your employees. Not only does it save money, time and resources, but they can also train your younger employees. In fact, you want them to pass their wisdom on to as many employees as possible.
One option for retaining aging employees is to give them flexible work schedules, like allowing them to work from home more often. In many cases, retaining your critical employees outweighs the challenges that may come with their age. Not to mention, you already know you can count on their:
- Low absenteeism
- Strong work ethic
- Reliability
- Loyalty
- Skills
- Knowledge
As you work to accommodate older workers’ needs, you’ll want to consider any:
- Diminishing physical abilities
- Health issues
- Injury or illness it may take them longer to recover from
Our Risk Engineering team can help you identify the best choice for your employee, your company and your future.
Can Your Employees Retire While on Workers’ Compensation?
For some, retirement can be a hard pill to swallow. For others, like tradesmen, CEOs and business owners, it’s a long-awaited reward for years of hard work and dedication to their craft.
So, what happens if your employee has an injury at work but is also about to retire? The answer is actually simple. If your employee retires while on workers’ compensation, your coverage will continue to pay their medical bills that are related to the injury. However, payments for lost wages are impacted by Social Security retirement benefits and the state your employee lives in. In most states, once your employee reaches retirement age, they can receive both workers’ compensation and Social Security retirement benefits. Although, some states may reduce the workers’ compensation payments.
There are some cases where a workers’ comp judge approves a lump sum settlement for an employee receiving workers’ compensation benefits. However, this depends on the legal issue at hand and the workers’ comp benefits provided.
To help you handle a work injury correctly, here are some tips:
- Get help and ensure medical providers are on their way.
- Take pictures of the injury and the scene of the incident.
- Report the incident within 30 days to your insurance company and record it in your personal records.
Remember, workers’ comp doesn’t cover your employees’ personal injury if it happens outside of work.
Can Your Employees Get Both Workers’ Compensation and Social Security Retirement Benefits?
The quick answer is yes, your employees can receive both. However, your workers are only eligible for social security retirement benefits when they’ve reached the age of 61 years and eight months.1 There is no age limit for workers’ compensation. Depending on the case, Social Security retirement benefits may reduce workers’ compensation payments.
Employees can get workers’ compensation, disability and Social Security Disability Insurance benefits at the same time. However, the total amount of these benefits can’t exceed 80% of the worker’s average current earnings before they became disabled.2
Average Cost of Workers’ Compensation Insurance
A number of factors can affect your workers’ compensation insurance costs, including the:
- Laws in your state: Each state has different requirements for minimum coverage that can increase your cost.
- Size of your payroll: The more employees you have, the higher your cost can be.
- Type of work your employees do: If they have jobs that involve more risk, it could increase your rate.
- Number of full- or part-time workers you have: Different types of workers will require different coverage amounts.
To determine the amount of risk your employees face, you can look at the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) class codes. The NCCI uses industry data and trends to assign risk levels or class codes to different jobs. For instance, a construction worker has a different code and higher rate than a retail worker.
Depending on your state, your business may also receive an experience modification number. The NCCI determines this number by comparing your business’ claims history with other similar companies. If you have a lower experience modification number, you can have a cheaper premium.
Once you have all your information, you can then determine an estimate for your premium using this simplified formula:
Workers’ Classification Code Rate X Experience Modification Number X (Payroll/$100) = Premium**
To get a more exact estimate, get a workers' comp quote today or call one of our representatives at 855-829-1683.
** This is a simplified formula only for reference. An actual workers’ comp premium calculation can be more complicated. Experience mods are subject to state requirements and do not apply to every policy.