We hypothesized that low socioeconomic status, employer-provided health insurance, low wages, and overtime were predictors of reporting workers compensation indemnity claims. We also tested for gender and race disparities.
Responses from 17,190 (person-years) Americans participating in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, 1997?2005, were analyzed with logistic regressions. The dependent variable indicated whether the subject collected benefits from a claim. Odds ratios for men and African-Americans were relatively large and strongly significant predictors of claims; significance for Hispanics was moderate and con- founded by education. Odds ratios for variables measuring education were the largest for all statistically significant covariates. Neither low wages nor employer-provided health insurance was a consistent predictor. Due to confounding from the ‘‘not salaried’’ variable, overtime was not a consistently significant predictor.
