Workers' Comp 101 - history

Workers’ Compensation- what is it? How did we get here?

The Florida Workers’ Compensation system……..it is supposed to be a self-executing system. Basically, a person unfortunately gets hurt at work, they get sent to the doctor, the doctor patches them up and they return to work when released by the doctor to return to work. If the injured person loses pay from work, they get paid for a certain percentage of their salary for time missed from work due to the injury. That’s pretty much the way Florida Workers’ Compensation is supposed to work....but as we all know, there is so much more to the story.

This will be the first in a multi part series that will go over the basics of the Florida Workers’ compensation system. It is written for any and all that are interested in, work in, or just want to know more about the Florida Workers’ Compensation system. Basically, it is a bird’s eye walk-through the system. It is not meant as a critique of the system nor will it written as an opinion piece and it will hopefully not be slanted towards an injured person or the employer. It will be just as Joe Friday from Dragnet would say, just the facts, ma’am.

The series will be written for education purposes only; it is not intended to be legal advice. If anyone has questions on the content, please feel free to reach put to me for a more in-depth conversation or post your questions online and I will try to respond as soon as possible.

In order to start, we need to understand and comprehend what the Florida Workers’ compensation system is, we need to start with a brief history.

Workers’ compensation has been called a "Grand Bargain" between employers and workers that developed at the beginning of the 20th century. Under this Grand Bargain, workers receive guaranteed, no-fault benefits for injuries, illnesses, and deaths, but forfeit their rights to sue their employers. Employers receive protection from lawsuits but must provide benefits regardless of fault.

In the early 1900’s, the United States was going through the industrial revolution. We all know the stories, children working, no regard for employee safety, long hours, It was up to the injured employee to prove that the employer was negligent.

The first compensation system in America was proposed by President Taft and put into law in 1908 to cover those workers involved in interstate trade.

The first comprehensive workers' compensation law was finally passed shortly thereafter in Wisconsin in 1911. Nine other states passed regulations that year, followed by thirty-six others before the decade was out. Florida did not start its Workers’ Compensation program until 1935. Florida created the Industrial Commission which began actual operations in June 1935. The final state to pass workers' compensation legislation was Mississippi in 1948.

Initially, there was no compensation for the first fourteen days of the disability. Compensation for disability was not to exceed $18.00 per week. Compensation for disability was paid at the rate of 50%, 55%, and 60% of the employee's average weekly earnings, dependent upon the number of dependents of the employee. Medical treatment was furnished at a cost not to exceed $250.00, except in surgical cases in which the maximum expense to the employer was $500.00. Compensation could not exceed 350 weeks and it could not exceed $5,000.00.

According to the Florida’s Division of Workers’ Compensation website, in the first year of the Florida Industrial Commission, 10,977 cases on "workmen's" compensation were reported by Florida's 67 counties. Of these, 2,983 were reported in Dade County and 1,985 were reported in Duval County. Benefits paid were approximately $290,434.00. By contrast, in 2019, there were almost 51,000 litigated cases in the state (7112 litigated cases in Dade county alone) and countless unlitigated case with over $637,500,000.00 paid in benefits.

As time progressed, the Florida Worker’s compensation system changed in an attempt to keep up with the times. The first major change occurred the late 70’s. Since that time, it appears that every year there was some change to the workers’ compensation system. The last major overhaul was in 2003. We will touch on some of the changes as we go through the system. The next topic we will cover is what is an employee, a simple distinction you might say, but one that the statute takes a few pages to define.