California workers comp premium rate expected to jump 6.7% in 2015

The California Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau is set to recommend a 6.7% increase in the state’s pure premium workers compensation rate next year, the bureau said Wednesday.

San Francisco-based WCIRB will submit a rate filing next week to the California Department of Insurance requesting that pure premium rates be increased to $2.86 per $100 of payroll as of Jan. 1, 2015, according to a statement from the bureau. That’s compared with a pure premium rate of $2.68 per $100 of payroll as of Jan. 1, 2014.

WCIRB cited increased medical costs, high levels of indemnity claim frequency and lower-than-projected wage growth in California, the bureau said.

The bureau noted earlier this month that indemnity claims have increased by 19% in Los Angeles County and 14% in the Los Angeles Basin in the last three years.