Substitute schemes or modifications of the • employer's liability under the law by agree ments between employers and employees are not usually forbidden, but the employer is not allowed to reduce his liability as fixed by law. Where the burden is entirely on the employer by the statute, if the employee makes any contribution to the fund or to any substitute system, he must receive additional compensation benefits.
With practical uniformity the states have placed the entire burden of the compensation or insurance systems on the employer. The exceptions to this rule are Oregon and West Virginia.
Most of the laws fix a time during which no compensation is payable immediately follow ing the accident causing disability. This ranges from six days to two weeks, during which time no compensation is allowed in most states, other than such provision as is made for medical or surgical attendance. In a few instances, however, if the disability is prolonged beyond a designated time, benefits are payable for the first week or weeks of disability.
Compensation proper falls into three class es: for death, for total disability, and for partial disability. For disability of any class there may be also different provisions for temporary and permanent disability. Be sides these compensation provisions, a num ber of the acts provide for medical, surgical, and hospital attendance, and in a number of cases for burial in case of fatal injuries. The benefits for death are in most cases based on the earnings of the injured person, usually approximating three or four years' wages, payable in installments, ranging from 50 to 66% per cent of the weekly or monthly wages. In a few cases the amounts are fixed monthly payments, uniform for all classes of employees, without reference to their pre vious income. Minimum and maximum amounts for weekly or monthly payments and for the total are frequently prescribed. The provisions as to children who are bene ficiaries usually are that the benefits pay able in their behalf shall cease on their reaching the age of 16 years, though in a few cases the limit is 18 years. In West Virginia, benefits to children cease when they reach the legal age of employment, which in that state is 14 years. A few states have the pro
vision also that benefits shall not cease at the ages named if the recipient is mentally or physically incapacitated from earning a living.
The remarriage of a widow is made to terminate benefits in a number of cases, though in a few instances a lump sum is payable on such remarriage, either a fixed amount or representing a fixed number of months of benefit payments. If the bene ficiary is a widower, no provision is made for a similar allowance in case of his remarriage.
A few states recognize the fact that a per manently disabled workman is a greater economic loss to his family than if he were killed outright at the time of the accident, and allow in case of permanent total disabili ty a larger amount of compensation than in case of fatal accidents, some continuing pay ments for such disability for the full period of the injured workman's life. For the most part, however, this basis of the payments is the same as for death.
Limitations are placed on the time for giv ing notice and for making claims under the acts, notice usually being required within from ten to thirty days, and a claim within from six months to six years. A number of the acts contain the provision that no notice is necessary where the employer has other knowledge of the fact or where the accident was a fatal one. The time set may also be extended if it is shown that the employer was not prejudiced by the delay. The time for presenting the claim or bringing action thereon appears usually to be fixed abso lutely.
On the failure of the employer and his workmen or the claimant to reach an agree ment as to the amount of compensation or other facts involved, recourse may be had in a number of states to a special commission or board which is created to have charge of the administration of the law. In other states arbitrators chosen for the purpose or any standing committee of the employer and his workmen may take cognizance of the dis putes. In some states the disputes are re ferred to the courts. In all cases an appeal, sometimes only on certain phases of questions involved, may be had to the courts.