WSIB Premium Rate WSIB has announced a 2% increase to the average premium rate for both 2011 and 2012. While not all rate groups will see increases, there will be no decreases for any rate group. The average premium rate will rise from $2.30 to $2.35 for every $100 of insurable earnings in 2011 and to $2.40 in 2012. The following are the 2010, 2011 and 2012 rates for Hospitality Operators:
The following pieces of information specific to Rate Groups 919 and 921 should be noted:
Rate Group 921 has seen a slight decrease in the number of workplace injury claims, both lost-time injury (LTI) and non lost-time injury (NLTI) but has seen an increase in the duration of claims, meaning even though there fewer workplace injuries they are resulting in more lost-time.
It is also very important to note that for Rate Group 921, injuries resulting from Musculoskeletal Disorder (more commonly referred to as sprains and strains) and Falls account for more than 68% of all injury claims in 2009. These same injury types accounted for just more than 47% of injury claims for Rate Group 919 in the same time period.
Also very significant, the rate of lost-time injury Rate Group 921, when examined by worker age, sees an increase in LTIs by age category until 55+ which then is a decrease. Interesting, Rate Group 921 has seen a steady decrease in lost-time injury claims among young workers (aged 15-24). Rate Group 919 has an opposite trend where accidents rates decrease in each age group, with young workers having the highest lost-time injury rate.
ORHMA has reached out to the Chair’s office to express concerns with the increase for Rate Group 921, and will be invited to a special technical briefing in the coming weeks. ORHMA had previously met with the Chair, President and senior staff of WSIB to raise concerns with the UFL and financial stability of the WSIB, to call for a review of the current funding structure, and to seek no increases to premium rates while the review was underway.
Rate Group and Service Sector Data:
These data show a clear trend that while accident rates continue to improve the degree of improvement is considerably less than that of the service sector and Schedule 1 employers as a whole. It also demonstrates clearly that the difficulty for Rate Group 921 is not necessarily the number of claims, but the duration and cost of claims. It will not come as a surprise to anyone to note that 921 claims tend to be longer in duration and more costly, and this is directly related to an aging workforce and a higher than average incidence of sprain and strain type lower-back injuries.
Below is a chart showing the 919 and 921 premium rates from 2001.