Choosing More Coverage

Posted on: 30 July 2020

Multiple factors, including average employee age, affect workers' compensation insurance. The cost of workers' compensation insurance typically increases as workers age. The good news is that there are measures you can take to maintain affordable coverage. Below are some of the reasons old age affects workers' compensation insurance – and tips to mitigate the costs.

Reasons for Increased Premiums

Health tends to deteriorate with age. Below are some of the specific reasons an aging workforce can inflate your premiums.

Diminished Physical Abilities

Physical abilities tend to wane age people age. Some of the age-related declines include:

• Vision impairment
• Hearing impairment
• Postural instability

All of these impairments increase the risk of accidents in the workplace. For example, an aging worker with postural instability is more likely to slip and fall than a younger worker without such impairment.

Deteriorating Health

Aging employees are also likely to suffer from age-related diseases. Here are examples of such diseases:

• Cardiovascular diseases
• Diabetes
• Alzheimer's disease
• Osteoarthritis

Some of these diseases also increase the risk of injury. For example, an aging worker with arthritic hands might not be adept at equipment or machinery control, which increases the risk of injury.

Long Recovery Times

Lastly, younger people tend to recover faster than their older counterparts do after an injury. For example, a diabetic person might take longer to recover from an injury than a person without diabetes. An injured worker receives benefits until they recover. Since longer recoveries mean more benefits, the insurance premiums go up to cover the increases.

Coping Mechanisms

Even with an aging workforce, there are things you can do to reduce the risk of work injuries. Such measures will help keep your premiums low. Below are some of these tips.

Continuous Training

Provide ongoing training for your employees. The training should cover safety and security in the workplace too.

Relocate Aging Employees

Some tasks are more dangerous for aging workers than their younger employees. For example, your aging workers might not be able to lift heavy objects. If possible, move your aging workers to safer work areas.

Adoption of Safe Work Practices

Lastly, you should always strive to improve your workplace's safety. For example, you should automate dangerous tasks to reduce the level of human involvement.

Hopefully, you won't pay too much to protect your workers with insurance coverage. Don't forget that the management of insurance costs is an ongoing thing. Talk to your insurance agent to help you buy the right coverage and keep the costs down.