Workers' compensation benefits
Workers' compensation is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to workers injured in the course of their employment. Eligibility for, and awarding of, benefits to injured workers are determined by workers’ compensation boards, which are funded through employer premiums. IWH research focuses on trends in workers’ compensation benefits, their adequacy and equity, and their effects on workers.
IWH in the media
‘Nothing like it in the world’: Should Canada adopt New Zealand’s approach to supporting victims?
After New Zealand's prime minister pledges to financially support the recovery of survivors of a deadly mosque attack, Global News journalist Jane Gerster talks to Institute for Work & Health president Dr. Cam Mustard about the distinct features of New Zealand's no-fault insurance scheme.
Published: Global News, March 2019
Project
Project
Project
Tracking long-term outcomes of injured workers in Ontario to better target supports
Status: Ongoing
Issue Briefing
Measuring the adequacy of workers’ compensation benefits in Ontario: An update
In 2011, an IWH Issue Briefing summed up research on the adequacy of earnings replacement benefits for injured workers with permanent impairments in Ontario and B.C. This update looks at more recent cohorts, after major changes in Ontario’s workers’ compensation legislation.
Published: March 2016
At Work article
Workers’ comp benefits keep poverty low among permanently impaired workers and their families, study by IWH finds
Ambitious study of earnings of injured and non-injured workers over 10 years finds benefits play important role in reducing poverty among permanently impaired
Published: August 2015
Project report
Project report
Work injury and poverty: investigating prevalence across programs and over time
This report shares the findings from a study on the prevalence of poverty among permanently impaired injured workers across different time periods and receiving benefits from different legislative programs.
Published: July 2014
IWH Speaker Series
IWH Speaker Series
Income security and labour-market engagement: Envisioning the future of work disability policy in Canada
In this plenary IWH senior scientists Drs. Emile Tompa and Ellen MacEachen describe the new Centre for Research in Work Disability Policy, recently launched to address work disability policy challenges through a seven-year SSHRC Partners grant. They describe the centre’s mandate and how it's organized to create a new generation of research on work disability policy.
Published: February 2014
Project report
Project report
Adequacy of workers’ compensation benefits: supplemental report
This report describes the findings of a supplemental analysis of the adequacy of workers’ compensation earnings replacement benefits. The original analysis measured the adequacy of earnings replacement benefits for permanently disabled workers under two workers’ compensation benefit regimes in Ontario. The supplementary analysis ihcludes the contribution of Canada Pension Plan Disability (CPP-D) benefits to the assessment of the adequacy of wage replacement benefits.
Published: April 2013
IWH Speaker Series
IWH Speaker Series
Work disability trajectories under three workers' compensation programs
This presentation profiles a study that investigated how Ontario workers’ compensation claimants from different time periods fared in terms of labour-market earnings recovery. More specifically, this study investigated the labour-market earning patterns of Ontario workers’ compensation long-term disability claimants from three different time periods and receiving benefits under three different programs. The study provides insights into the individual and contextual factors that contribute to labour-market engagement and earnings recovery.
Published: April 2013
Project
Project
Analyzing the adequacy of benefits among workers’ compensation claimants in Ontario, 1999-2005
An IWH research team updated an earlier study that looked at the adequacy of workers’ compensation benefits for permanently disabled workers under two Ontario programs: pre-1990 and 1990-1997. This update took a look at benefits adequacy under the program introduced in 1998.
Status: Completed 2017