Vermont businesses to see double-digit comp rate drop
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Vermont businesses will see double-digit rate decreases in workers compensation insurance in 2020, the office of Gov. Phil Scott announced in a statement Thursday.
This is the fourth year in a row that the state has seen rate decreases since Gov. Scott took office and is the largest decrease in more than a decade. The rate change, which was approved by the Department of Financial Regulation, will take effect April 1, 2020.
According to the statement, Vermont employers will pay an average of 30% less in workers compensation premiums than they did in 2016. In the voluntary market — where approximately 90% of Vermont’s employers purchase workers compensation insurance — loss costs will decrease an average of 11.6%. In the assigned risk market, loss costs are expected to decline 12.1%.
Vermont’s logging, ski and dairy farming industries are expected to see some of the biggest rate reductions. Premiums are expected to drop between 16 % and 20% for logging, between 10% and 14% for skiing, and between 8% and 12% for dairy farming.
The DFR also revised a rule to reduce the price that one- or two-person businesses pay for comp coverage by pricing it at 50% of Vermont’s average weekly wage. Previously, coverage was priced at the full weekly wage average.
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