Soaking Smaller Businesses under Mandated Workers Compensation Insurance

My small laboratory operation with three employees, counting myself, is forced to pay $69 a year for Terrorism Insurance to The Hartford as part of our mandated Workers Compensation and Employers Liability Insurance.  This is a ridiculous charge for insurance for a small company located in Columbia, Maryland.  We are hardly a target for terrorists.

What is more important yet, my actual payroll was multiplied by a factor of 1.74 to arrive at the payroll basis they use for charging for all aspects of the workers compensation insurance.  It turns out that the state of Maryland requires insurers offering workers compensation insurance to treat all officers of the company as having a minimum salary even if they actually have a smaller salary.  This is a clearly discriminatory act against very small companies and is of the nature of piling onto them when times are hard.  What I would give to be able to pay myself and my partner what the state claims we must have for our insurance premium basis!

Of course, I would not be surprised if the state of Maryland does not have this discriminatory requirement in part at the insistence of the insurers.  It is a curious thing that the upper salary used for the insurance basis is also set by the state of Maryland.  An executive making more than $197,600 is only counted as $197,600 to calculate the premium.  Chalk up another advantage for larger companies to make it a bit harder for smaller companies to compete.

This piling on process is similar to the state raising the rate for unemployment insurance on a company that has kept all of its employees while other companies are letting theirs go.  When unemployment claims go up, our rate goes up to cover the state's increased costs.  No one ever worries about our increased costs in hard times.  This never-ending Great Socialist Recession sure is a one-of-a-kind such hard time.

Governments cause horrible, long-lasting recessions and then they increase taxes on those companies trying to survive the chaos and destruction caused by governments.  Of course, if you are a big company or you have pull with government, then you can gather up subsidies,
be the beneficiary of mandates, and earn exemptions.