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.

Journal article

Age differences in work-disability duration across Canada: examining variations by follow-up time and context

Published: Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, September 2020

Journal article

Examining the impact of occupational health and safety vulnerability on injury claim reporting in three Canadian provinces

Published: American Journal of Industrial Medicine, February 2020

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

Ontario Injured Workers Outcome Study: Understanding the long-term recovery and labour market outcomes of injured workers in Ontario

Status: Ongoing

Project

Tracking long-term outcomes of injured workers in Ontario to better target supports

Status: Ongoing

Close-up of fingers holding Canadian bills

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

A mom at her dining table goes through bills

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

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

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

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