Utah workers’ compensation law

Utah mandates strict workers’ compensation insurance coverage for employers. With just a few exceptions, every Utah company that employs workers must provide workers’ compensation insurance.

Most employers must provide workers’ comp insurance in Utah.

However, business owners with no employees, such as sole proprietorships, partnerships, and limited liability companies, aren’t required to purchase workers’ compensation insurance. But they may do so if the owners believe they’d benefit from being covered.

Once they add one employee, they must provide workers’ comp insurance to that worker and all future employees.

In addition, the state excludes a few types of employees from its workers’ comp system, including:

• Some agricultural employees
• Casual or domestic employees
• Some real estate and insurance brokers

A business can elect to exclude some or all of its corporate officers and directors from workers’ comp insurance. However, it must first file notice with its workers’ comp insurer and file for an exemption with the State of Utah Labor Commission.

Utah business owners can compare quotes and purchase a policy from private insurance companies. (Insureon offers this service with its online insurance marketplace.)

If you’re unable to purchase workers’ comp insurance through the voluntary market referenced above because of your firm’s high-risk status, you can purchase coverage from the Workers’ Compensation Fund of Utah. This is Utah’s workers’ comp provider of last resort.

Utah employers who qualify can also self-insure their workers’ compensation claims. This means they’ll pay for their own workers’ comp benefits rather than submit them to an insurance company.

To qualify for self-insurance, they must file an application with the Utah Labor Commission.

In Utah, employees must file a workers’ comp claim within one year from the date of injury or illness.

The estimated workers’ comp expense for Utah employers is $0.88 per $100 in covered payroll, according to the National Academy of Social Insurance [PDF].

The penalties for violating Utah’s workers’ compensation statute can be severe:

• A penalty of at least $1,000
• A legal injunction against doing business in the state
• Loss of the so-called “exclusive remedy,” which protects employers from getting sued for workers’ comp benefits

If one of your employees dies as a result of a job-related illness or injury, the person’s dependents are entitled to receive death benefits. These include payments to cover burial and funeral expenses.

Workers’ comp insurance also provides weekly survivor income benefits. This amount, based on whether the deceased worker had dependents and how many, is calculated on the basis of 67% of the employee’s average gross weekly pay.

A workers’ compensation settlement is an agreement between the injured employee, employer, and insurer that terminate a workers’ compensation claim. This benefits both the employee and the employer.

The Utah Labor Commission allows settlements of workers’ comp claims. However, state law requires the commission to approve these agreements, even though all parties have indicated their desire to settle.

There are two kinds of settlement agreements in Utah:

Compromise settlements are used when the parties disagree on whether the sick or injured employee deserves to receive a workers’ comp benefit.

Commutation settlements are used when everyone agrees the worker should get a workers’ comp benefit.

If you are ready to explore workers’ comp insurance options for your Utah business, start a free online application today to compare quotes from top-rated carriers.