A Background to Workers' Compensation

Today's workers compensation benefits fall under four categories: Medical Benefits, Disability Benefits, Rehabilitation Benefits, and Death Benefits.

Following a 1917 Supreme Court ruling that states were able to pass compulsory workers compensation laws, today all 50 states as well as American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have their own workers compensation laws. Whereas each law is aimed at providing no-fault benefits to employees injured at work, each law is differs from others.

Up until the Industrial revolution there was little need for any workers compensation statutes. It was only with the arrival of high-speed machinery and mass-production processes that work related injuries, deaths and diseases started to occur in meaningful numbers.