Workers' comp assessment rates lowered for 2024, state announces 

Workers' compensation assessment rates for employers will be lowered next year, resulting in more than $50 million in potential savings for New York employers, the state announced Wednesday.

The rate decreases for 2024 — to 9.2% from 9.8% — would reduce the current assessment costs for all employers in the state but would be most impactful for its more than 400,000 small business owners statewide, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced in a news release from the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board.

Assessment rates set the fees paid by employers to cover the cost of administering the workers’ comp insurance program.

A total of 750,000 employers statewide are required to carry workers’ compensation coverage. The savings works out to an average of roughly $70 per employer.

"As New York employers continue to grapple with rising costs and inflation, this assessment rate decrease will translate to meaningful savings for small businesses and keep hard-earned money in New Yorkers’ pockets,” Hochul said in a statement.

Workers' compensation is a type of insurance paid for by employers that gives cash benefits to workers who become injured on the job or become ill as a result of their work. Benefits can also include medical care. 

Under the workers' compensation insurance program, such workers can, depending on factors such as their weekly wages and the severity of their disability, receive up to two-thirds of the state's weekly average wage, which adds up to $1,145.43. 

Employers in the state pay premiums to insurance providers to help fund the workers' compensation program. Premiums are determined by a variety of regulations and factors, including the relative risk or hazardous nature of a job.

The lower assessment rate, effective Jan. 1, is expected to save employers in the state approximately $53 million, the state said.

Assessment rates are determined in part by the Workers’ Compensation Board’s total estimated annual expenses, which fund the board's operations as well as interdepartmental programs at the state Labor Department and Department of Health. Those estimated expenses have decreased by over $50 million from 2023 to 2024, the state said.

Jonathan Klee, an attorney who represents employees in compensation cases, said that since the assessment rates are a percentage of the insurance premiums, the impact of the savings will depend on individual employers' circumstances. 

“It’s positive," he said,  but "It’s kind of contingent on what the premium of the employer is," said Klee, managing partner at Klee Woolf Goldman & Filpi LLP in Mineola.

John Robertson, owner of the Sexy Salad restaurant in Hauppauge, said the lower rate is helpful, but doesn't address insurance premiums he said are too high. 

“I don’t want to be negative, because it’s certainly a step in the right direction, but in my mind, it absolutely is not enough,” Robertson said. “It’s absolutely crazy what we pay for workers' comp and how broken the whole system is.”

Robertson said he hasn't had a workers' comp claim in 18 years of business. Despite making efforts to reduce risks, like installing anti-slip floors and avoiding the liability of alcohol sales at his daytime eatery, his premiums remain high. 

“It doesn’t matter all of the different things that I’ve done over the years,” he said.