How Does Workers Compensation Insurance Protect Your Small Business

Whenever you start your own business, you need to prepare for the worst, right? The most cost-effective way is to get your business insured. Lots of business owners choose to purchase full coverage small business insurance to protect their companies, employees and customers. However, this is not enough.

To get adequate protection, you will have to obtain a few more insurance policies such as worker’s compensation insurance, professional liability insurance, property insurance and directors and officers insurance etc. Not only can they protect your business premise, but also they would prevent you from financial loss in the event of fire, vandalism or theft. Unfortunately, more often than not, business owners overlook the importance of workers compensation insurance.

What is workers compensation?

Workers compensation insurance, also referred to as workman’s compensation insurance or employer’s liability insurance, is mandatory in every state in the United States. This type of insurance is aimed to cover your employee’s medical and disability expenses or at least some portion of their lost wages due to work-related illness and on-the-job injuries.

Basically, a worker’s compensation policy covers a variety of areas, including:

Medical treatment, which pays for your employee’s physical therapy, hospital stays and travel expenses caused by work-related injuries;
Occupational hazards such as disease exposure;
Rehabilitation that makes sure the employee can return to their original profession or be placed in a different field;
Lost wages (normally, two-thirds of the employee’s salary);
And death benefits.
What kind of protection does workers compensation give you?

Mostly, business owners think workers compensation as a kind of overhead expense that won’t bring them any benefits. But the fact is that it’s an inexpensive benefit that protects both your employees and your small business.

Firstly, this policy can effectively prevent you and your business from financial loss. Once you purchase workers compensation insurance, the insurance company will award the employee monetary sums if his got injured or became disabled while on the job. Thus, you don’t need to pay a penny out of your own pocket.

Secondly, workers compensation helps you avoid lawsuits and unnecessary problems in the event that any of your employees were injured or died, since the basic coverage is offered in exchange for your employee’s right to take legal action against you and your company.

Besides, when your employee makes an inappropriate claim for on-the-job injuries or work-related illness, the policy will get your legal expense covered. Through eliminating unnecessary losses, workers compensation can surely help you improve your cash flow.

In the long run, workers compensation helps both employees and employers. If you are ready to buy a policy, keep in mind the following tips. For different insurance policy, the amount of employer’s liability coverage varies a lot. When purchasing, try to get one that best suits your budget and provides as more coverage as you need. And, always remember to shop around to grab a great deal. You can also take advantage of online quote estimators to calculate how much your coverage will cost.