NYS Workers Compensation Insurance

NYS WORKERS COMPENSATION INSURANCE REQUIREMENTS:

(All employers need to know the facts and consequences )

New York State

Updated November 17, 2020

Employers operating in New York State are required to have workers’ compensation coverage for their employees, with limited exceptions. Employers are required to obtain and keep in effect workers’ compensation coverage for all employees, even part-time employees and family members that are employed by the company. It is also required that employers conspicuously post a notice that indicates their workers’ compensation insurance coverage, including the name, address, and phone number of the insurer, with the employer’s policy number.

This includes part-time employees, but exceptions may include contractors employed by another company, domestic employees working less than 40 hours per week, babysitters and minors over the age of 14, clergymen, employees of municipalities not engaged in hazardous employment, longshoremen and harbor workers, railroad employees, and sanitation workers, firefighters and police officers in the employment of the City of New York.

Workers’ compensation insurance can be purchased from private carriers or — if a high-risk company — from competitive state funds. Failure to carry the proper workers’ compensation insurance for five or fewer employees within a one-year period can result in fines of between $1,000 and $5,000.

Failure to carry the proper workers’ compensation insurance for six or more employees is a felony punishable by fines of $5,000-$50,000.

If convicted of failing to secure coverage twice in the span of five years, the fine would be between $10,000 and $50,000 and could include other penalties.

The statute of limitations is two years, beginning either from the date of injury or the date that the employee should have reasonably become aware of a work-related injury. The statute of limitations for work-related hearing loss is very different, in that a worker cannot file a claim until 90 days after the loss occurs.

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