Auto Manufacturing Injuries and Workers Compensation

This study was conducted using a dataset from the Illinois Workers Compensation Commission (IWCC) that contained “claims” that had been filed between 1970 to the first quarter of 2008. From 1995 to 2008 claims 11,152 were identified for companies with auto manufacturing Illinois. The key findings of this study are that: 1) the auto manufacturing industry in Illinois has a very high claim rate compared to other industries, 2) assuming low turnover, 71% of the employees who work in the auto manufacturing industry have not only been injured, but they have also had to file a workers’ compensation claim to get appropriately compensated, 3) claim rates differ substantially by worksite (highest 27.36 per 100 employees injured in one year), 4) our claim rates are comparable with Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Survey of Occupational Injuries Illnesses (SOII) rates, but our claim rates represent only a fraction of total injuries, 5) claim rates should be lower than the recordable injury rates due to companies’ rightfully paying for injuries which employees have obtained while working. However, companies are either: a) “forcing” every injured employee to take the injury to workers compensation or b) companies are paying for some injuries already on top of the workers compensation claims, which would mean that the BLS is underestimating the number of injuries which occur in the auto manufacturing industry.