EXTREMES OF LIBERALITY IN THE COMPENSATION PROVISIONS OF THE VARIOUS STATES

From the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics

(1) California, Connecticut, Idaho, North Dakota, Porto Rico, and the Federal Government.

(2)

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, New
Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and
Virginia.

MEDICAL ASPECTS OF WORKMEN'S

COMPENSATION 1

A brief summary of the Workmen's Compensation Act of New York State will indicate the extent to which New York is 1 From article by the Public Health Committee of the New York Academy of Medicine. Medical Record. 100: 766-70. October 29, 1921.

endeavoring to meet the problem. Employers of labor in hazardous occupations-and this affects 80 per cent of all wageearners in the state-are made directly responsible for the payment of certain fixed compensation for accidents and for supplying needed medical attention for sixty days. The scope of this law has recently been extended to cover so-called "occupational diseases," arising directly out of the conditions of labor, but not due to a specific injury. The burden of this compensation is through the industry ultimately shifted on the consuming public.

To safeguard the employee, should his employer go into bankruptcy, the employer is required to insure himself either in a stock or mutual insurance company, or in the State Fund; or he must furnish evidence that he will be able to pay any compensation claims made against him. Employers so bonded are termed "self-insured."

The law allows compensation in accident cases as follows: for the "waiting period" of fourteen days, no compensation (unless the disability lasts more than seven weeks); for each week of disability thereafter, two-thirds of the weekly wage, not to exceed $20 nor to be less than $8. In case the weekly wage is less than $8, the whole amount is paid. As 70 per cent of industrial accident cases recover in the first week and 12 per cent in the second, these compensation provisions affect only 18 per cent of all injured workers.

For the loss of a member compensation estimated at the rate of $20 a week for a specified number of weeks is paid. Examples of these specific awards are shown in the tables given on page 86. These sums are paid in weekly installments, the intent of the law being to pay compensation in lieu of wages. For facial disfigurement and head and back injuries a lump sum is paid in settlement.

Comparison of some of these awards with the schedule formulated in 1917 by the Committee on Statistics of the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions is shown in the following tables. The schedule of the committee, while not intended as an ideal basis for compensation awards, but as an attempt to obtain a more accurate measure of industrial hazards, furnishes a certain standard of comparison. It will be seen that the New York State law, liberal as it is when measured by other existing laws, must be made still more liberal in order to furnish really adequate compensation for injuries.

If the International Committee's schedule is taken as 100 per cent adequate, the New York schedule appears low. Omitting the figures for permanent total disability, the adequacy of the New York schedule for an average of all the injuries given is 56 per cent of that of the committee; for an average of the major injuries (i.e. loss of arm and leg) it is 40 per cent; and for an average of the minor injuries it is 62 per cent. This schedule refers only to time. The percentage of adequacy is reduced by the provision in the New York law, allowing only two-thirds of the wages. The following table illustrates a comparison in money benefits for a man earning $20 a week:

1 New York gives a life benefit, but this sum is calculated on the

1,000 weeks provided in the Committee's schedules.

Again omitting the figures on permanent total disability, the adequacy of the New York schedule for an average of all the injuries given is 38 per cent; for an average of the major injuries it is 27 per cent, and for an average of the minor injuries it is 41 per cent. Below is a table of these average percentages.

It will be seen from the foregoing table that the relative adequacy of compensation in time and money benefits is much less for major injuries than for minor injuries, in spite of the fact that the major injuries have a much more deleterious effect on earning capacity than have the minor injuries, and, therefore, a more lasting effect on industry.

At present the law does not allow compensation for the period of disability concurrently with the granting of specific awards. That is, if a man receives compensation for sixty weeks for disability as a result of complications arising from the loss of a thumb, his claim for the specific award of sixty weeks' disability-the award allotted to such injury-is disallowed on the ground that he has already been paid sixty weeks' compensation. An amendment to the law has been suggested, making it possible to grant both awards for the same injury.

In case of death compensation is paid to survivors of the workman on a weekly basis, the amount varying according to the number of dependents, but the total must not be more than two-thirds of the weekly wage nor exceed $20 a week. Widows or widowers receive compensation for life unless they remarry, children until they are eighteen years of age. The average death case costs the insurance company about $4000.

If the worker dies without dependents, $1000 is appropriated. by the insurance carrier and paid into two state funds, $100 to a special fund to pay compensation in case of the loss of a second member, and $900 to the vocational re-education fund. The first fund referred to is used in the case of a one-armed man, for example, who loses a second arm. The employer pays compensation for the loss of the second arm only, the additional compensation to the worker being paid out of this special fund.