North Dakota Workforce Safety and Insurance

For immediate release

November 25, 2008



North Dakota Workforce Safety & Insurance has Lowest Premiums in the Country



Workers’ compensation insurance premiums in North Dakota are ranked the lowest in the country once again according to a national study undertaken by the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services. The study is undertaken every two years and marks the fourth time in a row that North Dakota has ranked as the most affordable place for businesses to purchase workers’ compensation insurance. National premium rates ranged from a low of $1.08 per hundred dollars of payroll in North Dakota to a high of $3.97 in Alaska, with a median value of $2.26.



"This is great news," said Bruce Furness, Interim Executive Director and CEO of Workforce Safety & Insurance (WSI). "With the legislative cooperation of the past 15 years along with the strategic decisions made by our Board of Directors, we have come a long way."

WSI has also been able to maintain low premiums while raising the benefits to workers through the legislative process over the last 15 years, such as:

· Increasing Death Benefits.

· Enhancing Vocational Rehabilitation Benefits to help retrain injured workers and find them employment after they are seriously injured on the job.

· Moving the waiting period from 10 to 3 years for Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs) for those on Permanent Total Disability.

This legislative session the WSI Board of Directors approved 2009 legislative proposals to further enhance injured worker benefits including:

· Increasing the lifetime cap on death benefits from $250,000 to $300,000, doubling the one-time payments to dependent children and spouses and increasing the burial expenses to $10,000.

· Increasing the dependency allowance for those hurt on the job with dependent children.

· Increasing the maximum disability benefit from 110% to 125% of state’s average weekly wage.

In addition, Furness added, the money employers saved on premiums can be used to pay higher salaries and benefits to workers while investing in workplace safety to prevent injuries from happening.

“The best injury is the one that doesn’t happen in the first place,” said Furness. WSI has committed nearly $15 million over the last three years by partnering up with employers throughout the state through safety grant programs to make workplaces safer.



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The complete national premium study can be accessed online at:

http://www4.cbs.state.or.us/ex/imd/reports/rpt/index.cfm?fuseaction=version_view&version_tk=181097&ProgID=FEARA012

To talk to Executive Director/CEO Bruce Furness about this story, please contact the WSI Communications Department at 1-701-328-5931.