Ohio injured workers are covered under Ohio Law

Does my employer have to carry workers' comp insurance in Ohio? YES! Employers are legally obligated to have workers' comp coverage through the Bureau of Workers Compensation. Great news for you if you are injured! 

Workers in the state of Ohio have two protections that guarantee their right to recover compensation under Ohio workers' compensation laws.

​First, workers' compensation is written into Ohio's state constitution. 

The Workers’ Compensation Act passed in 1911.   It was in response to the unchecked and frequent workplace injuries and fatalities of the Industrial Era.  The Act created a state insurance fund to compensate workers injured on the job.  The Industrial Commission of Ohio ran the system until 1955 when the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation was created.
 
In Ohio, workers’ compensation is a no-fault system.  Both employees and employers gave up certain rights.  Only after a workers’ compensation dispute has totally worked its way through the administrative system of BWC and the Industrial Commission of Ohio can a party appeal a disputed legal matter into Ohio’s court system.
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Excerpt from http://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov

The second protection is the Ohio Revised Code (ORC). ORC state law requires that employers provide workers' compensation insurance coverage for their workers. If an employer does not provide workers' compensation coverage, it is considered non-compliant and subject to paying the injured workers' costs and lost earnings directly out-of-pocket.

​4123.35 Payment of premiums by employers.
(A) Except as provided in this section, and until the policy year commencing July 1, 2015, every private employer and every publicly owned utility shall pay semiannually in the months of January and July into the state insurance fund the amount of annual premium the administrator of workers' compensation fixes for the employment or occupation of the employer, the amount of which premium to be paid by each employer to be determined by the classifications, rules, and rates made and published by the administrator. The employer shall pay semiannually a further sum of money into the state insurance fund as may be ascertained to be due from the employer by applying the rules of the administrator.