On September 17, the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) released proposed workers’ compensation rates for 2025. The average rate will go up by 3.8%. For the second straight year, L&I is using reserves to buy down the rate to prevent a higher average rate hike.

According to L&I, the proposed rate increases are largely due to wage inflation and increased medical costs. The 2025 average rate increase would have been 5.5% had the department not used $64 million in reserves to buy down the rate.

Some individual job classes important to cities will see higher rate increases than the average, especially for first responders. For the second year in a row, the rate increases for police and firefighters were capped at 15%. According to L&I, without the caps, the rate increases for first responders would have been two to four times higher in 2025.

Here is a look at the rate increases for some city job classes in the proposal:

The dramatic rate increases for first responders are largely driven by presumptive PTSD claims. For the past two years, PTSD claims have made up about half of all claims costs for first responders. PTSD claims have made up a large proportion of claims costs each year since the Legislature made PTSD a presumptive workers’ compensation claim for first responders in 2018. AWC is continuing to work with L&I and the Legislature to find a way to ensure first responders get their mental health care needs met in a timely fashion, while also controlling skyrocketing claims costs.

Individual cities’ premiums are determined by rates based on the type of work performed, and then multiplied by that city’s experience factor. A city’s experience factor can go up or down based on claim history and costs.

Members of AWC’s Retro Program can request their jurisdiction’s rate by contacting Retro staff.

Written comments on the proposed rates can be sent to joanne.attwood@lni.wa.gov by October 30 at 5 pm.

L&I has set two public hearings on the proposed 2025 rates for late October: