workers' compensation

Examples of workers' compensation in the following topics:

• Social Justice

  • Most of the support came from Democrats, but Theodore Roosevelt and his third party, the Bull Moose Party, also supported such goals as the eight-hour work day, improved safety and health conditions in factories, workers' compensation laws, and minimum wage laws for women.
  • With this expansion, the dangers to the railroad worker increased.
  • Under FELA, railroad workers who are not covered by regular workers' compensation laws are able to sue companies over their injury claims.
  • FELA allows monetary payouts for pain and suffering, decided by juries based on comparative negligence rather than pursuant to a pre-determined benefits schedule under workers' compensation.
  • The United States Employees' Compensation Act is a federal law enacted on September 7, 1916.

• Regulation

  • Most of the support came from Democrats, but Theodore Roosevelt and his third party, the Bull Moose Party, also supported such goals as the eight-hour work day, improved safety and health conditions in factories, workers' compensation laws, and minimum wage laws for women.
  • With this expansion, the dangers to the railroad worker increased.
  • Under FELA, railroad workers who are not covered by regular workers' compensation laws are able to sue companies over their injury claims.
  • FELA allows monetary payouts for pain and suffering, decided by juries based on comparative negligence rather than pursuant to a pre-determined benefits schedule under workers' compensation.
  • The United States Employees' Compensation Act is a federal law enacted on September 7, 1916.

• Toward a Welfare State

  • By 1929, workers' compensation laws were in effect in all but four States.
  • These state laws made industry and businesses responsible for the costs of compensating workers or their survivors when the worker was injured or killed in connection with his or her job.
  • Prior to the Great Depression the United States had social programs that mostly centered around individual efforts, family efforts, church charities, business workers compensation, life insurance and sick leave programs along with some state tax supported social programs.

• Middle-Class Reformers

  • Equally important were the Workers' Compensation Laws, which made employers legally responsible for injuries sustained by employees at work.
  • Jane Addams (September 6, 1860 – May 21, 1935) was a pioneer settlement worker, founder of Hull House in Chicago, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in woman suffrage and world peace.

• The Varieties of Progressivism

  • Purification to eliminate waste and corruption was a powerful element, as well as the Progressives' support of worker compensation, improved child labor laws, minimum wage legislation, a support for a maximum hours that workers could work for, graduated income tax and allowed women the right to vote.

• Factories, Working Women, and Wage Labor

  • These workers used machines to replicate in minutes or hours work that would require a skilled worker days to complete.
  • These workers were typically hired for contracts of one year.
  • In the winter, workers often shivered in the cold.
  • In such environments, workers’ health suffered.
  • Owners also reduced compensation for piecework.

• Progressives and the Working Class

  • Reformers worked to improve workers' lives, implementing measures such as the initiative, referendum, and recall.
  • Many states enacted factory inspection laws; by 1916, nearly two-thirds of the states required compensation for the victims in industrial accidents.
  • In 1903, Mary Harris Jones organized the Children's Crusade, a march of child workers from Kensington, Pennsylvania, to the home of President Theodore Roosevelt in Oyster Bay, New York, bringing national attention to the issue of child labor.
  • The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was founded in Chicago in 1905, at a convention of anarchist and socialist union members who were opposed to the policies of the American Federation of Labor (AFL).
  • Unlike the AFL, which was a group composed of separate unions for each different trade (craft unionism), the IWW supported the concept of industrial unionism, in which all workers in a given industry are organized in a single union regardless of each worker's particular trade.

• Early Efforts in Urban Reform

  • The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.
  • The jury acquitted the two men of first- and second-degree manslaughter, but they were found liable of wrongful death during a subsequent civil suit in 1913 in which plaintiffs were awarded compensation in the amount of $75 per deceased victim.
  • That, however, only prompted the rest of the workers to seek help from the union.
  • The news of the strike spread quickly to all the New York garment workers.
  • Approximately 20,000 out of the 32,000 workers in the shirtwaist trade walked out in the next two days.

• FDR's Third Term

  • The effort was also hindered by numerous strikes by union workers, especially in the coal mining and railroad industries, which lasted well into 1944.
  • The strain of his paralysis and the physical exertion needed to compensate for it for over 20 years had taken their toll, as had many years of stress and smoking.

• The New Era

  • After a sweeping and highly controversial injunction by a federal judge against striking, picketing and other union activities, the railroad strike eventually faded away through local arrangements between workers and their employers.
  • Harding vetoed a version of an adjusted compensation act in September 1922, diminishing his overall popularity and costing him support among Republicans who saw his attempts at fiscal responsibility as endangering the party’s prospects in future elections.