Most business owners—and especially small business owners—break out in a cold sweat when someone mentions the term workers’ compensation. SC businesses find it difficult, confusing, and expensive to try to figure out just what to do about this issue, and you can’t blame them for wondering if there isn’t a better alternative. In fact, one state has been doing things differently for a century, and now a few others are considering following that state’s example.

 

How SC Workers’ Compensation Law is Different from Texas

In South Carolina, businesses don’t have the option whether or not to buy workers’ compensation insurance—it’s the law that they must. That’s the case in most states, but not in Texas. From the time that Texas passed its original workers’ comp law in 1913, it has allowed companies to opt out of the program. But rather than leave their employees with no safety net if they are injured, most of those companies offer their own injury benefits plan—an alternative to workers’ compensation.

 

Other States with Workers’ Comp Alternatives

Currently, Oklahoma and Tennessee also offer some kind of alternative to businesses that are interested in opting out of the workers’ compensation system. SC lawmakers recently considered a bill that would have created a similar system, but there is no word yet on whether it has a chance to become law.

Alternatives to workers’ comp probably save companies money and improve service for employees overall, but they also create even more issues for business owners to sift through as they make benefits decisions. Complete Employee Services helps companies like yours offer top-level HR services to employees, making sure that they get all the help they deserve while taking the HR burden off your shoulders. Call us today to learn more!