How Much Are Your Balls Worth? A State-by-State Guide
Earlier today, ProPublica published a fascinating state-by-state breakdown of workers' comp benefits. Because of a lack of federal oversight, the compensation for the same injury varies tremendously depending on the state in which it occurred. For example, a worker in Illinois who lost an arm would receive as much as $439,858, while a worker in Alabama would receive only $48,840 for the same injury. This disparity in compensation holds true for other injuries, such as severed or crushed testicles.
If you do lose a testicle on the job, hopefully it'll happen while you're working for the federal government, which will likely pay out $98,108 in compensation. The highest-paying state for testicle injuries is, again, Illinois at $73,537; the lowest is Minnesota, which will pay out a maximum of just $3,750 per ball. The national average compensation for losing a testicle on the job is $27,658, though 41 states didn't provide ProPublica with compensation information.
ProPublica's excellent state-by-state infographic for different injuries is here; their accompanying article, which details the infuriating, outdated, and borderline criminal workers' comp regulations in states like Alabama, is available here.
