Workers’ Comp Rates Increase in Montana

The 9.5 percent increase in workers’ compensation insurance rates imposed April 30 and effective July 1 is only an average.

The range of change depends on the danger of the jobs and employers’ safety records:

Farm and ranch employers can expect rates to increase 22 percent.

Manufacturers can expect an average increase of 2.6 percent.

Office and clerical employers will see an average 12.2 percent increase.

Goods and service employers will see an average 8.1 percent increase.

The contracting industry will see an average rate increase of 5.5 percent.

State agencies as a whole will see an average 8 percent increase.

The minimum workers’ compensation insurance premium, to which 6,000 of the state’s smallest businesses subscribe, will increase from $300 annually to $330.

The July 1 rate increase follows a rate hike of 11.6 percent enacted in mid-2003. Before 2000, State Fund work comp insurance rates were on the decline.

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