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In San Francisco, all employers are required to provide paid sick leave. But elsewhere in the country, your profession determines how likely you are to receive paid time off for illness.ProfessionPercent of workers with paid sick days Food prep/service 15%Construction 18Protective services 22Personal care & service 31Production 41Building service & maintenance 53Arts, entertainment, sports 62Education 62Office & administrative support 68Architecture/engineering 81Management 83Legal 84 As many as 5.4 million working Californians don’t get any paid sick days – and they tend to be both sicker and poorer than employees who do receive sick leave, according to a report released Wednesday. The… Read More »Who gets paid sick leave?

Moderate California Quake a Drill for ‘Big One’. Despite shaking a large swath of Southern California, a magnitude-5.4 earthquake was not the “Big One” that scientists have long feared. Still, it rattled nerves, causing people to vow to step up their emergency preparations. The quake, which rocked the region from Los Angeles to San Diego on Tuesday, caused only limited damage and minor injuries, and served as a reminder of the seismic danger below sprawling freeways and subdivisions. Homes and businesses reported widespread but minor damage, such as fallen ceiling tiles, cracked walls and windows, and warped door frames. The… Read More »EarthQuake: Be Prepared

An Albany, New York woman who removed all her belongings from her home the day before it mysteriously caught fire has pleaded guilty to insurance fraud.Kim M. Laporte, 39, later filed a $38,000 claim under her renter’s insurance policy.Officials are still investigating the cause of the fire. Insurance investigators also found that Laporte had falsified an earlier claim for damages stemming from a garage collapse on the same property.“The Insurance Department is committed to prosecuting cases of insurance fraud and we will continue to do so to protect the citizens of New York and discourage those who would commit fraud… Read More »Insurance Fraud Scheme

The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has proposed a far-reaching new plan – one that includes mandatory flood insurance, IRA-like catastrophe accounts, subsidized premiums for homeowners and a federal reinsurance program – that it says would better protect coastal homeowners and their insurers against major weather catastrophes.To help right that maket, The Hartford’s proposal would:– Mandate flood insurance for all coastal homeowners– Create a federal and state-level reinsurance programs to backstop losses by private insurers– Establish untaxed savings accounts (“supplemental catastrophic security accounts”) to pay for property insurance– Create state subsidies for some coastal homeowners read more

Workers compensation claim frequency continued to decline during 2007, although at a slower rate than during the previous two years, NCCI Holdings Inc. reports.While a 2.5% decrease in 2007 claim frequency continues a trend that started during the 1990s, it is “more modest” than the 7.0% drops during each of the previous two years and was the smallest decrease in eight years, the NCCI said.And while claim frequency continues to decline, indemnity costs and medical severity continue to rise, Boca Raton-based NCCI noted in its latest review.Average indemnity costs per claim rose 4.0% in 2007, up slightly from the average… Read More »Workers Comp claim frequency falls according to NCCI

The moderate earthquake that struck Los Angeles late Tuesday (July 29) morning at 11:42am PDT has not caused major damage or serious injury, according to early eyewitness reports and the Los Angeles Fire Department.Based on the latest available information on the seismic parameters of this event, insurance forecaster AIR Worldwide said it does not expect significant insured losses. The firm says part of the credit for the few losses goes to the state’s building codes.“Building codes in California are among the strictest in the world,” said Mehrdad Mahdyiar, director of earthquake hazard at AIR Worldwide. “AIR expects minimal to no… Read More »Building Code Helps Minimize Losses from California Earthquake

Imagine you need to send letters containing personal information… Now imagine you sent it to a wrong address… The largest health insurer in Georgia has sent letters containing personal information to the wrong addresses, exposing more than 200,000 Georgians to possible identity theft. Do you have insurance coverage to cover a claim arising out of such operations? Ask you insurance broker now!

One auto insurance company is offering New Jersey motorists discounts of up to 60 percent if they install a high-tech monitoring device.The wireless devices will tell Progressive how many miles are driven, how fast people accelerate and hit the brakes.Under the pay-as-you-drive concept, good drivers will get discounts and lead foots could face surcharges as high as 9 percent.New Jersey will be the fifth state to offer the option.Progressive says in other states, about one-third of the company’s customers have enrolled. They’re saving about 10 to 15 percent.The program will begin Aug. 8.New Jersey motorists have the highest auto insurance… Read More »Pay-As-You-Drive Auto Insurance

Workers’ compensation laws have evolved and expanded since the beginning, but these are the roots of the modern American workers’ compensation system.This history begins a workers’ compensation series that will cover various topics and concepts surrounding the modern workers compensation system.Read full story