Spring 2009 - National Association of Professional Pet Sitters

Risk Management:
Workers’ Compensation Insurance
By: David Pearsall, CIC, CWCA
As a business owner you are likely aware
that you must carry insurance to protect your
clients from damages caused by your negligence.
Most pet sitters have taken out a general
liability policy to cover them for the
unforeseen accident, such as a pet injured in
your care, or a dog running away from you
and injuring someone else while on a walk or
in a park. But what happens when you, your
employees, or independent contractors (ICs)
get injured? The answer is “workers’ compensation
insurance.”
Workers’ compensation insurance is the compensation
to an employee for injury or occupational
disease suffered in connection or
arising out of, or in the course of, employment
in which there is an employee/employer
relationship. To put it more simply, if your
employee gets hurt on the job, workers’ compensation
insurance will pay their medical
bills and lost wages while they are out of
work. It is the exclusive remedy to cover you,
the employer, against employee injuries. It
compensates you for the following exposures:
on the job injuries that occur in the course of
employment (such as a dog bite), occupational
diseases that result from employment
(such as rabies or other diseases contracted
from a client’s pet), and employers’ liability
that is excluded from employment (such as if
your employee’s family sues, claiming your
negligence caused the loss and therefore
they have suffered a loss as well).
Over the years I’ve come across many pet
sitters who believe if they use independent
contractors instead of employees, they don’t
need workers’ compensation. Others have
indicated that since they only employ one or
two people part-time they simply do not need
the coverage. This is not always the case.
The truth is it really depends on the individual
state where you live. Each state has its own
statute and it is highly recommended that you
know and follow the law in your particular
state. Failure to insure penalties could add to
the nightmare of an uninsured claim. By and
large most states require coverage with even
one employee, although several states
exempt employers with less than a specified
amount (usually three or five).
“What happens when
you, your employees, or
independent contractors
(ICs) get injured? The
answer is ‘workers’
compensation
insurance’.
The NAPPS Network • 6