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California cumulative trauma workers’ comp claims nearly double since 2018

The cumulative trauma share rose from 9.1% of claims in 2018 to 16.5% in 2025, a net gain of 7.4 percentage points, according to the California Workers’ Compensation Institute.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Liability Insurance

Cumulative trauma claims in California workers’ compensation coverage nearly doubled over the past decade, rising from 9.1% of all claims in 2018 to 16.5% in 2025, according to an analysis by the California Workers’ Compensation Institute.

CWCI said the increase was largely driven by more workers filing at least one cumulative trauma claim, with participation accounting for about 87% of the growth in its analyzed subsample, while intensity contributed the remaining 13%. The cumulative trauma rate was relatively steady through 2021, increasing by just 0.7 percentage points between 2018 and 2022, before climbing 6.7 percentage points over the following three years.

The rise extended across regions, industries, body-part categories, and worker-tenure groups. Los Angeles remained the highest-rate region, moving from 15.8% to 22.9%, while the Inland Empire and Orange County saw the biggest jump from 9.9% to 19.8%.

CWCI also found the most substantial claim volume increase occurred in the Valleys, up 136% between 2018 and 2025, while Los Angeles recorded a smaller 25% volume increase. By industry, Food Services and Administrative Support and Waste Management posted the largest cumulative trauma rate increases, at 12.6 and 12.3 percentage points, respectively, while Manufacturing rose the least, at 4.6 points. Soft Tissue claims had the largest body-part rate increase, up 30.0 percentage points, followed by Other Facial Soft Tissue at 25.9 points.

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