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Reduced comp rates in store for Vermont businesses

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Reduced comp rates in store for Vermont businesses

Vermont employers will save a total of $10 million under lower workers compensation insurance rates this spring, according to Gov. Phil Scott’s office.

There will be overall reductions of 3.7% in voluntary lost costs and 7.6% in assigned risk rates starting April 1, the governor’s office said Wednesday in a statement. This is the second consecutive year both loss costs and assigned risk rates have been reduced, with aggregate reductions of 11.6% and 15.6% respectively over the last two years, according to the statement.

The reduction in comp costs were driven by several factors including reductions in the frequency of claims, down 11.5% over the past three years. The severity of indemnity and medical treatment claims have also declined, down 4.6% over the past five years, according to the statement. 

Reductions also came as the result of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation directing the National Council on Compensation Insurance Inc. to remove a surcharge applied to the assigned risk market — as recent experience no longer justified the expense — resulting in additional premium relief of 6.7%for Vermont employers in the assigned risk market. 

Vermont's log hauling industry will receive the greatest benefit from this year's filing, as the department also directed NCCI to combine the log hauling employer class with the contract trucking class, resulting in a 24% rate reduction for log haulers while having no impact on the contract trucking industry, according to the statement.

“This is good news for Vermont employers and the overall Vermont job market,” Gov. Scott said in the statement. “These considerable savings will contribute to making Vermont a more affordable place to do business and creates more opportunity for businesses to thrive, grow their operations and support more workers.”

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