Breaking free from the price cycle: workers' compensation, like most other lines of business,...

With few exceptions, workers' compensation insurance rates are in decline across the country. Although rates are certainly an important component of workers' comp insurance costs, there are other considerations companies must address during a declining rate environment.

As a starting point, it's important to have a basic understanding of the workers' comp insurance price cycle, experience rating and some history of this coverage's market.

The workers' comp price cycle repeats over and over again in a historically predictable pattern:

* Workers' c