The percentage of companies that don’t participate in the Texas workers' compensation system has fallen to the lowest level since 1993. The Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) noted a significant decline in the percentage of private, year-round employers that were non-subscribers from 33% in 2014 to 22% in 2016. The DWC estimates that 82,260 Texas employers were non-subscribers in 2016.
Texas is the only state in which any private employer may choose not to participate in, or non-subscribe to, the workers’ compensation system without being penalized. Texas companies that choose to non-subscribe may be subject to negligence lawsuits brought by injured employees. The DWC attributes the decline in Texas non-subscription participants in part to the fact that workers’ compensation rates have dropped significantly in the last two consecutive years.