Stakeholders Say Commissioner Made Right Call by Lowering Pure Premium Rate for 2021

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara made the correct choice by lowering the advisory pure premium rate to $1.45 and opting not to include uncertain, preliminary COVID-19 cost projections, employer and labor advocates said Monday. The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau had recommended increasing the pure premium rate from $1.52 per $100 of payroll to $1.56, a 2.6% jump. The bureau’s submitted rate also included a 6-cent average surcharge to reflect projected COVID-19 costs spread across six employer categories based on exposure risk. It would have been th...