Workers' compensation benefit payments and costs declined in 2000, marking the eight straight year of declining benefits relative to covered wages and the seventh consecutive year that employer costs declined relative to wages, according to a new report released by the National Academy of Social Insurance.
Workers' comp bennies for every $100 in wages dropped by 39 percent from their peak of $1.68 in 1992 to $1.03 in 2000. Employer costs declined by 42 percent between 1993 and 2000, or from $2.16 to $1.25 per $100 of wages.