A surcharge added to workers’ compensation costs for New York employers is nearly five times the average surcharge in other states, the Workers’ Compensation Policy Institute said this week.
The state has increased the assessments by 10.4 percent and 27 percent in the last two years, a WCPI analysis shows.
Some 32 states impose surcharges on workers’ compensation costs, with an average assessment of 4.2 percent, WCPI officials said Wednesday. New York’s assessment is 20.2 percent.
New York’s assessment is 127 percent higher than the second-highest assessment, 8.9 percent in Minnesota, WCPI officials said.
“This tax burdens all employers, and municipal employers feel this mandate especially acutely as the struggle to provide essential services and contain taxes,” WCPI acting executive director Paul Jahn said in the statement. “This pressure is intensified by the new 2 percent property tax cap.”
States fund their workers’ compensation systems in various ways with assessments on premiums paid by employers being the most common method, WCPI officials said.
