Business questions regarding Workmans Comp and Hiring

[dirk martin]

My business is expanding to the point that I need to hire.
I'm in Wisconsin, and in a heavy Amish/Mennonite community.
I've got some questions regarding Workmans Comp, in regards to hiring family as well as hiring Amish workers.
I've also got questions regarding LLC "partners" being exempt from WC.....so, as you can see, I have some complex topics I need addressed.

Where should I go to get these questions answered?
Do I go to an accountant, or a lawyer?
I have one of each, and I email'd both.
The accountant never replied, and the lawyer barely answered one of the 5 questions I threw at him.

[Lee Schierer]

I would suggest you contact the Wisconsin Department of Work Force Development. You may be able to get answers from their website.

[Jim Becker]

WC regulations are state specific...so the first point of reference is your state's Employment resources that you should be able to find online. Your accountant should also be able to help you. If he/she isn't responding to you...you need a new one who values you as a client. Your attorney may or may not be knowledgable on this, depending on what they really focus on in their practice.

I'm dealing with this 'as we speak' in PA, but fortunately, I'll have no employees and as an officer/shareholder, I can exempt from WC for my self and for Professor Dr. SWMBO. (who is the majority shareholder) Now this is for an S-Corp and is under PA WC regulations. I didn't look into LLC to see if it is different relative to exemptions. In PA, there is no exemption for family members relative to WC...if they are not an officer of the corporation (the only possible exemption), they are required to be covered just like any other worker that might be hired.

[Bruce Wrenn]

A good INDEPENDENT insurance agent could most likely answer your WC questions.

[John C Cox]

Remember that Workman's Compensation laws and insurance is a way to not only protect the employee - but it protects the business as well..

If you just hire somebody as a person and they get hurt on your watch - you can be personally liable for everything any jury can dream up forever.. Workman's comp laws put caps on this stuff... It's much more difficult for people to go after frivolous lawsuits within the workman's comp system..

And with workman's comp insurance comes workman's comp lawyers working for you.....

and don't think for one minute that if a family member gets hurt on the job - they won't sell you out so they can get medical care... Your cousin won't pay his own medical expenses for his broken arm he got on your watch... He will lawyer up and come after you...

[Tom M King]

Here, you buy it through an insurance company, although the rate is set by the state, and varies by type of work. You give the insurance company an estimate of how much your payroll will be, pay a startup fee, and then they come audit your checkbook every so often, and payment is adjusted to meet actual payroll.

[Peter Kelly]

I don't expect that laws regarding workers comp would be any different for Anabaptists...

[dirk martin]

I don't expect that laws regarding workers comp would be any different for Anabaptists...

I do not know if Amish are Anabaptists, however the WC laws are very different for the Amish.
Matter of fact, they are exempt.
Think insurance = gambling.

[dirk martin]

Can someone explain to me why on earth Workmans Comp rates are based on salaries?
What's the logic behind that?

One would think that the new, inexperienced worker, that're getting a lower wage, would be more prone to injury than the people in the company getting paid the most.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Can someone explain to me why on earth Workmans Comp rates are based on salaries?

Worker's comp = Workers Compensation = someone hurt on the job get's part of their normal pay while they recuperate.
If you earn more, you get more if/when you can't work due to a job related incident.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

I practiced law in PA for 40 years, in Maryland for almost as long and in DC for 30 years. Worker's Comp laws vary so drastically from state to state that only an employment lawyer in Wisconsin or your states'dept of labor can answer those questions. However, on the bright side, once you have employees, you can often cover yourself with WC insurance as well.

Certain jobs are far riskier than others, so WC insurance premiums are adjusted for those risks. An office worker who never runs errands for the employer, might be 4% of wages paid, while a logger might be 100% of wages paid. Years ago, I had a brush with worker's comp for tunnel diggers for the Washington DC subway system. Premiums were 260% of wages paid because of the dangers. One of my clients got a lung condition from spraying shotcrete. He ended up in a wheel chair on oxygen and his long term comp benefits paid for his life easily exceeded 2 million dollars. Had another client who delivered furniture and was shot when he knocked on a door where he was to make a delivery. His employer did not have enough insurance to pay the required benefits and lost everything. While some religious groups will not make a claim for benefits, the state will still probably require coverage. I recently had a client/employer who figured the Amish guy would not ever make a claim and he could skip insurance. After visiting his business, I told him the guy was not Amish, but the client insisted he was. Turns out the guy was German Baptist and when the guy lost some fingers on a table saw, a claim was made and the client had not bothered to get insurance thinking he would never need it. Client assured me everything was filed properly etc. Seems filing false reports with the state constitute a misdemeanor, failing to file withholding reports and pay withholding taxes is even worse. The client barely escaped prison time. the IRS and state liened everything he owned including his house, trucks and hunting cabin.

Too many employers try to claim that employees are independent contractors. But pay by the hour, expect work during certain hours and expect to tell the "independent contractor," what to do and when and how to do it. In almost every state, nearly all such independent contractors are deemed employees and the employer will be in the deep end of the manure pit when things get stirred up. There are exceptions for "casual" employees. A true independent contractor is hired to complete a job How he does it, the hours worked, whether he uses employees or does it himself are entirely up to the independent contractor. For instance, a builder my hire a plumbing company to so all the plumbing at a house under construction. Large residential builders have staff plumbers who are not different than the carpenters and foremen as employees. Your state laws may vary a bit, but trying to cheat the system in this day and age of computers, generally comes back to bite you large and furiously.

[Peter Kelly]

I do not know if Amish are Anabaptists, however the WC laws are very different for the Amish.
Matter of fact, they are exempt.
Think insurance = gambling.

Mennonites, German Baptists and Amish are all Anabaptists.

Per above, I certainly wouldn't roll the dice with workers comp insurance, regardless of what religion your employee(s) might be. Not worth it.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

There is at least dozen other groups of anabaptists, Brethren, Schwenkfelder, Hutterites, Bruderhof, etc. A few groups, now gone were very militant anabaptists and led armed rebellions to establish theocracies. One famous group was wiped out, men women and children in a single day. Can't remember the name right now. Found out that many of my ancestors were Mennonite and Quaker. One Greatgrandfather was a Schwenkfelder, although I did not know till long after he died. Schwenkfelders are much like mainstream Christians, no plain clothes, drive cars, have televisions, etc.

[Peter Kelly]

They were pretty thoroughly persecuted in Europe from the mid-1500s to the 1700s. At one point Anabaptism was actually a capital crime in most places.

About as sad a story you'll ever read about them: https://www.goshen.edu/mqr/dirk-willems

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

The Martyr's Book of Mirrors has an accounts of hundreds of anabaptists executed and tortured during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The city of Bern Switzerland burned over 70 Mennonites at the stake on a single day. (about 1634) Authorities in holland would sneak around on Sunday mornings trying to find small congregations of anabaptists and they would go in and immediately execute everyone inside. Look up the history of the Waldensians. Whole villages were slaughtered in 1545.