WORKERS´ COMPENSATION INSURANCE FOR OREGON   800.285.8525

What is workers' compensation?

In short, workers’ compensation insurance (often referred to as “workers’ comp”) provides benefits for workers like you who are injured as a result of your work.

How it works

Workers' compensation insurance protects you by paying for medical treatment and lost wages, and it protects employers by shielding them from liability lawsuits that might result from work-related injuries or illnesses.

By law, Oregon employers must carry workers' compensation insurance or be self-insured. Employers pay premiums to workers' compensation insurance companies like SAIF, and those premiums pay for most of the benefits workers receive if they are injured (or suffer an occupational disease) as a result of their work.

It is the worker's responsibility to prove that an injury or disease is job-related.

How workers' comp rules are made

By law, Oregon employers must carry workers' compensation insurance or be self-insured.

The state legislature makes laws relating to the workers' compensation system, such as determining the level of benefits and how you qualify for them.

The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS), which regulates the workers' compensation system, applies those laws, primarily through administrative rules (OARs). In general, DCBS makes certain that employers obtain workers' compensation insurance and ensure that injured workers receive the benefits to which they are entitled.

The Management/Labor Advisory Committee (MLAC) studies workers' compensation issues and makes recommendations about workers' comp policy to the legislature and the governor. Five labor representatives and five management representatives serve on the committee.

SAIF's role

SAIF Corporation, the leading workers' compensation insurance provider in Oregon, is a not-for-profit, state-chartered company. SAIF has been helping Oregon businesses and workers for more than 90 years.

We issue more than 50 percent of the workers' compensation policies in the state - including policies for thousands of small businesses - and we protect over half-a-million workers every day.

Our mission is to constantly improve Oregon's workers' compensation system by setting the industry standard for affordability, availability, innovation, efficiency, and service quality.

Our vision is that SAIF will be an industry innovator that makes Oregon the safest place to work. We exist to serve and protect the Oregon workforce, meeting the needs of workers and employers and strengthening Oregon's economy

Your contribution to DCBS

Although all benefits are paid from employers' premiums, both workers and employers also contribute a few cents per hour worked into the Workers Benefit Fund (WBF). Your contribution is required by law (however individuals do not have their own benefit account). The WBF is used to fund injured worker programs such as re-employment assistance for injured or disabled workers, the retroactive benefit program, and more. The work-hour assessment fee has dropped 25 percent since 2003.

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