DID WORKERS PAY FOR THE PASSAGE OF WORKERS COMPENSATION LAWS

Market responses to legislative reforms often mitigate the expected ga ins that reformers promise in legislation. Contemporaries hailed worke rs' compensation as a boon to workers because it raised the amount of postaccident compensation paid to injured workers. Despite the large g ains to workers, employers often supported the legislation. Analysis o f several wage samples from the early 1900s shows that employers were able to pass a significant part of the added costs of higher postaccid ent compensation on to some workers in the form of reductions in wages . The size of the wage offsets, however, was smaller for union workers .