The Fund That Grew While the Injured Went Hungry

The law provided in 1911 that for single workmen who were injured a flat rate of $30 per month compensation would be paid. In 1911 the cost of living — rent, board, clothing, and other necessities — ranged from $18 to $25 per month. The man then was enabled to pay for room and board during the period of his injury and could lay by enough for January, tobacco and other incidentals. That same room and board today in the same place costs from $40 to $50 per month.

The provision for the married workman and his dependents was based on much the same basis, and for the purpose of providing for his necessities.

Careful statistics compiled by the most competent statisticians of our nation show that the cost of living now ranges from 80 to 105 per cent higher than it was in 1911, when the present law was enacted, and makes obvious the fact that an increase of at least 75 per cent in all awards under the law is absolutely necessary if the original spirit and purpose of the law are to be carried out.

But two amendments materially affecting the interests of the workers of the state have been made to the law since it was enacted.

One of these amendments was enacted in 1915 and established a seven-day waiting period for which the workmen would receive no compensation unless his injury incapacitated him beyond a period of 30 days. The original law provided him compensation from the first day of his injury. This amendment takes away annually from the injured workmen and returns to the employer an average of over $200,000 a year.

The other important amendment was enacted in 1919 and increased the pension for widows who became such after June 1919, from $20 to $35 a month. This increase amounts to over $300,000 a year, or approximately half the amount taken away from the injured workmen by the 1915 amendment.

There have been a few other minor amendments affecting permanent partial disability awards and providing for increases which restored a small proportion of the loss sustained by the workmen by the 1915 amendment, but these amendments as a whole have not restored all of the amount taken away in 1915.

So that not only has the law not been amended to meet the needs of increased living costs, but it is really lower generally in the compensation it pays the workmen.

The following facts are indicative of how the law has operated to the advantage of the employer and to the serious disadvantage of the workman:

The moneys paid by the employer into the accident fund have been materially reduced until the employer of Washington is obtaining his insurance at the lowest rate paid by any state in the Union. For instance: The lumber industry, which is 42 per cent of the total industries of the state, was levied a flat rate of 2½ per cent of its payroll for the entire industry. Since that time, due to the fact that payrolls have been enlarged as a result of wage increases made necessary by the increased cost of living, the contribution to the state accident fund have been materially increased, while the payments out of the fund to injured workmen have not been increased, and as a result enormous surpluses were created in the state accident fund.

Inasmuch as the legislature had not amended the law to provide for higher awards, a way had to be found for reducing the accident fund, so a reduction of the employers' premium to the fund was put into force; and later on the lumber industry's levy of 2½ per cent of its payroll has been reduced, temporarily at least, to a lower rate. So that the reduction in cost to the employer in the lumber industry has been reduced from the original general levy of 2½ per cent to an average general levy of 1.02½ per cent. In addition to this a merit rating provision was enacted which has permitted the lumber industry to gain a refund of approximately $350,000 a year on its contribution, or a reduction of approximately 15 per cent.

While this deplorable condition has been permitted to develop in Washington the other states of the Union have been constantly amending their laws until there are now 42 states that provide for their injured workmen which runs from 60 to 150 per cent in excess of those provided here.

It also should be noted that the Washington law provides the lowest per cent of wages in comparison provided for in the entire United States and Canada, and that even Georgia, Alabama and other southern states, employing mostly colored labor, provide a much higher percentage of wages in compensation for injuries than that provided for white labor in Washington, while most of the progressive states provide for almost double that allowed in our state.

There are approximately 100,000 wage workers in our state who will be affected by the decision of the members of the legislature, and every legislator should be guided in his decision by the sound principle laid down in the preamble of the original compensation act of our state: "The welfare of the state depends upon the welfare of its wage workers."