Employer Classification

Like other workers' compensation jurisdictions in Canada, we classify employers based on the industry they do business in rather than by occupation.

Classifications are based on the industry as a whole because:

Many occupations are difficult to categorize. Classifying employers individually would result in more complicated payroll reporting procedures. This would increase the WCB's need to audit employers and subsequently the administrative costs needed to run the compensation program.

Individual employer classification would provide an increased risk of fraudulent payroll reporting, leading to a greater need to perform audits on employers and the costs required to administrate the compensation program.

Rating by occupation alone would greatly increase the number of classifications we use. Subsequently, each of these classification units would be far smaller than the current industry classes, leading to a less stable statistical base and the possibility of wide fluctuations in assessment rates.