More often than not, we take things that have always been there for granted and fail to recognize the many sacrifices people before us have made to make modern life possible.
If you’ve sustained an on-the-job injury, hopefully you received the care and benefits you needed and were able to recover quickly and return to your job with no problems.
Even if you had to deal with some roadblocks, much of it was made short work of by a good workers’ compensation attorney. You ultimately won out and were able to move on with your life.
But what did workers in the U.S. do before the institution of Workers’ Compensation laws?
Early cases in the U.S. concerning employer liability for on-the-job injuries (1840’s) were scarce and rarely forced an employer to compensate an employee for their injuries. According to the law review at the University of Georgia, the basic judicial philosophy was that an employee “…should be grateful for the opportunity for gainful employment.”
Workers’ compensation laws didn’t originate in the U.S. – Germany is credited with creating the first system to compensate injured workers in 1884. In 1897, England adopted a comprehensive formula for “personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of employment.” Many other nations across Europe adopted some form of workers’ compensation between 1884 and 1903.
America was the only industrialized nation at the turn of the 20th century without a system to compensate injured workers but by 1911, 11 states had enacted such laws.
These laws marked what Colorado scholar J. Clayman claimed as “the first great venture into social security by the people of America.”
Employees were given assurances they would receive disability payments for lost wages and immediate medical treatment paid by their employers but to encourage a quick return to work, disability payments were to be limited to a percentage of the employee’s wages.
In exchange for limited workers’ compensation benefits, employers relinquished common law defenses like contributory negligence, assumption of risk and common employment.
Today, all 50 states have workers’ compensation laws to protect employees from being personally and financially devastated from an on-the-job injury.