Your humble blogger knows, full well, that insurance is expensive.  Workers’ compensation insurance in California can be particularly crippling to a small business’s budget.  If your business cannot afford to pay the electric bill, then you probably can’t afford to have a business.  The same goes for workers’ compensation insurance:  you cannot afford to operate without it.

Recently, a Monterey Employer was caught and cited for not having insurance.  The transmission shop was investigated and cited, and the owner had to pay heavy fines, obtain insurance, and serve one day in jail (and submit to 3 years of misdemeanor probation).

And he was lucky.

He was very lucky that what brought this issue to light was a general investigation and citation and not an injured worker.  Just like the guy who gets cited for not wearing a helmet while riding his motorcycle is lucky that it was a traffic stop and not a fatal accident that highlighted the need for protection.

If this employer’s uninsured status came to light when his employees sought medical treatment following an injury, it would have been too late, and neither bankruptcy nor the corporate shield would have protected his assets, nor all the king’s horses, nor all the king’s men, nor all the king’s lawyers and attorneys, zealous and diligent though they might be.

A lot of uninsured employers don’t know they need insurance – they think they’re staffed entirely by independent contractors (“by agreement”) or that a generic “business insurance” or providing health insurance satisfies the employer’s obligation.

Tell your friends and relations: if you have an employee, you need to be insured, self-insured (individually or as part of a group), or make those employees officers or partners.