Wage Loss Monitoring for Injured Workers in California's Workers' Compensation System: 2016–2017 Injury Year Findings (Third Interim Report)

Abstract

Limited Print and Electronic Distribution RightsThis document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.

Earnings Losses and Benefit Adequacy in California's Workers' Compensation System: Estimates for 2005–2017 Injury Dates

“…In this chapter, we describe updated trends in earnings losses for workers injured in 2016 and 2017 and compare these trends with earnings losses for workers injured in earlier years (2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015). These estimates are very similar to those reported in our third interim report (Rennane, Broten, and Dworsky, 2020) but use more-recent data. Specifically, the WCIS-EDD data used to produce these estimates were pulled in early 2020, allowing us to estimate two-year earnings losses through the end of 2017 for all workers and through the end of 2016 for a sample of workers receiving PD benefits within three years of the injury date (which we refer to as the constant-maturity sample of permanently disabled workers).…”

“…Specifically, the WCIS-EDD data used to produce these estimates were pulled in early 2020, allowing us to estimate two-year earnings losses through the end of 2017 for all workers and through the end of 2016 for a sample of workers receiving PD benefits within three years of the injury date (which we refer to as the constant-maturity sample of permanently disabled workers). Readers familiar with the findings from our interim reports may wish to skip this chapter; the findings reported here are very similar to those in Rennane, Broten, and Dworsky, 2020. We also note that the estimates in this chapter reflect pretax earnings losses and do not provide any information about benefit payments or uncompensated losses net of benefit payments.…”

“…Here, we briefly describe the data sources used in this project and explain the foundations of the RAND method. This discussion draws heavily on Rennane, Broten, and Dworsky, 2020. We also describe the methods used in empirical analyses intended to (1) explore factors contributing to these trends and (2) document the relationship between earnings loss and paid benefits.…”

“…There was more evidence of earnings growth for those receiving indemnity benefits: Relative earnings in the second year after injury increased from a low of 79 percent for workers injured during the years just following the Great Recession to 82 percent for workers who were injured in 2016. Relative earnings for workers with PD also began to show signs of improvement for injuries occurring after 2014 (Rennane, Broten, and Dworsky, 2020).…”

“…We make use of several administrative data sources for this project, all of which have been used for prior RAND studies (e.g., Peterson et al, 1998;Reville et al, 2005;Dworsky et al, 2016;Dworsky, Rennane, and Broten, 2018a;Dworsky, Rennane, and Broten, 2018b;Rennane, Broten, Dworsky, 2020). The Workers' Compensation Information System (WCIS) provides data on workers' compensation claims.…”