The Relationship Between Disability Discrimination and Age Discrimination in Workers’ Compensation

Abstract

Workers’ compensation programs provide cash benefits, medical care, and rehabilitation services to workers who are temporarily or permanently disabled by work-related injuries or diseases.In workers’ compensation, a worker is disabled if he or she experiences an actual loss of earnings or a loss of earning capacity as a result of a work-related injury or disease.In 2007, the national total of $55.4 billion of workers’ compensation benefits included $28.3 billion of cash benefits and $27.2 billion of medical benefits, while the costs to employers were $85.0 billion. (Sengupta, Reno, & Burton, 2009, Table 1).The $29.6 billion difference between the $85.0 billion in workers’ compensation costs for employers and the $55.4 billion of benefits paid to workers includes (1) for self-insuring employers, the administrative costs of providing the benefits, and (2) for employers who purchase insurance, the difference between premiums paid to the insurance carrier and the benefits paid to the employees these employers. These costs of the workers’ compensation delivery systems are examined in Sengupta et al., 2009, p. 30).Only Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Medicare provide more support to disabled workers.