The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries is proposing a 4.9 percent rise in the average hourly rate employers and workers pay for workers’ compensation insurance in 2026.
According to a news release, the increase would help pay for the rising cost of providing benefits when a worker is injured on the job. The proposed increase is less than what L&I projects it will need to cover 2026 claim costs. As it has done in past years, the agency plans to use the workers’ compensation contingency reserve to cover the difference.
If adopted, the increase would raise the cost of coverage by about $1.37 a week per full-time employee, on average. Employers pay about 75 percent of the premium, and workers pay about 25 percent.
According to the release, by maintaining a healthy contingency reserve through consistent, careful management of the premiums paid by workers and employers, L&I can cover some of the costs instead of passing higher premium increases on to employers and workers.
Without the reserve L&I says rates could go up nearly 13 percent to cover expected 2026 claims costs.
