Average industry premium rate drops 7.6 per cent to $1.22
The Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) of Alberta announced a 2011 average industry premium rate of $1.22 per $100 of insurable earnings, which is lower than last year.
Performance is the key to WCB premium rates:
| Premium base rate decreases | No change in premium base rate | Premium base rate increases | |||||
|
68 per cent of employers |
8 per cent maintain their base rate |
24 per cent will have a higher base premium rate | |||||
In an effort to incent safer workplaces, WCB will apply a poor performance surcharge of 25 to 200 per cent on their premiums to just over 1,100 employers whose claims costs are more than 80 per cent higher than their industry average.
There were 690 employers that improved significantly enough to move completely out of a poor performance surcharge position for 2011.
The following WCB forecasts affected 2011 employer premium rate setting:
•the number of workers covered through WCB is predicted to increase to 1.81 million
•the number of lost-time claims is expected to drop to 24,300
•workers' success is expected to remain strong at approximately 93 per cent achieving return to work with their employer or a new employer.
In addition to these favourable trends, workers' 2011 maximum insurable earnings (MIE) will increase to $82,800.
