Workers’ Compensation In The United States: The First 100 Years

The year 1911 saw the enactment of this country’s first state-based Workers’ Compensation laws. The effects of the Industrial Revolution begun some decades earlier made it necessary to change the way the costs associated with workplace injuries and deaths were compensated. Wisconsin claims credit for the first constitutional statute (earlier attempts failed constitutional muster) with Massachusetts and eight more states not far behind. Thirty-six other states followed by the end of the decade. So it’s no surprise that 2011 will see various commemorations of this social, economic and legal milestone.