Will Climate Change Impact Workers’ Comp?

Climate change and Workers’ Comp? Two things that don’t seem to be related strongly, but there are things you might not know that directly impact workers. Joe Paduda writes in his article, “Climate Change’s Hidden Impact on Workers’ Comp”, that there are some obvious impacts that you might not even think about. Paduda talks about some of the more direct impacts, such as the risk for public safety workers, heat exposure to agricultural workers and construction workers, and the more infrastructure work and payroll needed to rebuild and adapt to the changing climate. The example is given in the article about the damage hurricane Harvey caused back in 2017, and how human-caused climate change upped the severity of the hurricane by 30%, according to a study published in 2020 (1). Not only did climate change impact the hurricane, but the hurricane itself generated a huge loss of revenue to tons of businesses around the area. In his article he states, “No payroll, no premium”, which poses a serious question for those providing workers compensation insurance… what can you do to help climate change, and how will that help your workers compensation insurance? Check out the full article by Joe Paduda below:

Paduda, J. (2022, August 18). Climate change's hidden impact on workers' comp. WorkersCompensation.com. Retrieved August 26, 2022, from  https://www.workerscompensation.com/news_read.php?id=41740 

(1).     Frame, D.J., Wehner, M.F., Noy, I. et al. The economic costs of Hurricane Harvey attributable to climate change. Climatic Change 160, 271–281 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-020-02692-8