Worker’s Compensation is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee’s right to sue his or her employer for the tort (a wrongful act or an infringement of a right leading to civil legal liability) of negligence.
According to the Insurance Journal, the top five injuries as a percentage of total claims are:
- strains and sprains (30 percent)
- cuts or punctures (19 percent)
- contusions (12 percent)
- inflammation (5 percent)
- fractures (5 percent)
The most frequent causes of workplace injuries include:
- Material handling (32 percent of total claims)
- Slips, trips and falls (16 percent)
- Being struck by or colliding with an object (10 percent)
- Accidents involving tools (7 percent)
- Traumas occurring over time, for example when a part of the body is injured by overuse or strain (4 percent).