Minimum hourly assumed wage change

Effective January 1, 2017, the NCCI minimum hourly wage rate changed from a fixed rate to a variable rate to reflect Oregon's new, regional, three-tiered, minimum wage. In keeping with its historical practice, NCCI adopted Oregon's minimum wage rate to establish its minimum hourly wage rate in its filing.

Employers' minimum wage rates are determined by the employers' fixed business location and where the employee performs his or her work. (Read the Oregon minimum wage rate summary.)

Bureau of Labor and Industry (BOLI) rules direct employers to pay employees based on the county of the employer's fixed business location when the worker performs their work exclusively at that location. For other types of work arrangements, the rates may vary in accordance with BOLI's minimum wage rules. Generally, we will rely upon the employer's knowledge of the BOLI minimum wage rules for assigning the correct minimum wage rate.

Which policies are impacted?

This change impacts all new and renewing policies with covered, unpaid workers. Policyholders will need to report using Oregon's minimum wage rate in effect January 1st of the calendar year in which the policy is effective. In other words, all policies with policy effective dates during the 2017 calendar year will use the Oregon minimum wage rate effective July 1, 2016.

This may be confusing for policyholders who renew on or after July 1, 2017, because another minimum wage rate increase will go into effect July 1, 2017. As a result, some policyholders will pay the new minimum wage rate but report covered, unpaid workers using the July 1, 2016, minimum wage rate until their policy renews the next policy year.

As a result of the new variable minimum wage, SAIF is no longer assigning a rate to the policy for payroll reporting. This means endorsements, payroll reports, policy information pages, and business online applications will no longer display a wage rate.