Plan for $120M Fund Doesn't Match Stakeholder Expectations

By Greg Jones, Western Bureau ChiefWhen California lawmakers made $120 million available to supplement benefits for injured workers with disproportionate earnings losses as a last-minute compromise to ensure passage of Senate Bill 863, neither employers nor injured worker advocates envisioned that the payments would amount to only $6,000 to $12,000 per applicant.But that amount is what the Rand Center for Health and Safety in the Workplace projects for the average payment in a report that the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation approved for use in hashing out how th...