The single event that may have expedited the passage of workers’ compensation legislation in the United States was the March 25, 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City. The company employed approximately 500 employees, mostly immigrant women, some as young as 12 and 13 years old. A fire broke out on the eighth floor of the building. Many of the women working on the eighth floor were able to escape, but the women on the ninth floor were not. The employer, fearing employee theft, had previously locked the fire escape. One hundred forty-six women died, many of them jumping to their deaths as flames engulfed the building. The owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company were indicted for manslaughter, but were found not guilty. 23 individual lawsuits for damages against Triangle were settled for an average of $75 for each life lost.
During the Industrial Revolution (approximately 1770-1910) the increased use of dangerous fast-moving machinery caused crippling injuries and numerous fatalities. At the same time, the common law decreased the injured workers chance of recovering damages for their injuries or death. Injured workers could rarely overcome the defenses of contributory negligence, the fellow-servant exception and the assumption of risk doctrine. As a result, few injured workers, or their families, recovered any compensation for workplace injuries.
Workers compensation legislation was considered social legislation which was a compromise between the rights of employees and employers. Under the workers’ compensation acts fault or negligence was eliminated as a basis for recovery. The employee received a more certain recovery for injury or death, and in exchange the employer received reduced liability. Injured workers gave up their right to bring a tort claim with potential larger monetary damages in the form of pain and suffering and punitive damages against the employer, even when the employer obviously was at fault. The injured employee’s recovery was limited to payment for medical treatment, for lost earnings and for loss of limb or life.
Contemporary reformers and subsequent social and labor historians hailed the legislation as the first instance of social insurance, like social security, in the United States. Wisconsin passed the first workers compensation act in 1911. Minnesota passed its first workers compensation statute in 1913.
