A Primer on Non-Subscribers

The Texas Legislature enacted the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act in 1913 in response to the needs of workers who were being denied recoveries in escalating numbers of industrial accidents in Texas. The Act allowed employees of employers who subscribed to workers’ compensation insurance to recover for injuries without establishing the employer’s fault and without regard to the employee’s negligence. In return, employees of subscribers were barred from suing their employers in most circumstances. From the inception of the Act in 1913, Texas allowed employers to choose not to buy workers’ compensation insurance. Today, Texas is one of the few states that allow employers to make this choice.

Employers who choose not to carry workers’ compensation insurance commonly are referred to as “non-subscribers.” The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) reports that from 1993 to 2018, the proportion of Texas non-subscribers dropped from 44 percent to 28 percent. The number of employees working for non-subscribers in Texas remained relatively constant between 1993 and 2018, however. During those years, the percentage of Texas workers employed by non-subscribers varied from a high of 25 percent in 2008 to a low of 18 percent in 2018.