How Far Will They Go To Avoid Paying Workers Comp?

What a question! There seems no end to how far some people will go to avoid paying their fair share of workers compensation premiums. Don't get me wrong, workers comp premiums can be very expensive for a business owner to cough up and during tough economic times some folks turn to fraud as a way to bilk the workers compensation insurance company out of premium dollars they owe!

In the news you'll find a Kentucky coal mine operator recently charged with fraud. They allegedly set up a shell trucking company and showed payroll for some of their underground miners in the trucking company to avoid paying the higher underground mining rates.

You'll find others are not as creative and resort to things like shifting payroll from higher rate workers comp code classes to lower rate classes, this is called misclassification of employees; or not reporting workers as employees but considering them as subcontractors or independent contractors, there are many rules that apply when determining employee status; And on and on...

So, yes workers comp can be expensive and any business who has a workers compensation policy should have that policy reviewed for accuracy by an independent work comp consultant. Honest mistakes are made by insurance companies every day, mistakes that can be found and corrected with the proper help!