Bill
HB 5186
HB 5186 broadens workers’ compensation by expanding compensability (including mental and age-related conditions) and raises the weekly benefit from 80% to 90% of after-tax wages.
Status
- House Bill No. 5186. Introduced Oct. 30, 2025 (filed March 14, 2025) by Rep. Brenda Carter with multiple co-sponsors; read a first time and referred to the Committee on Economic Competitiveness (electronically reproduced 10/30/2025).
- Proposes amendments to the Worker’s Disability Compensation Act of 1969 (1969 PA 317; MCL 418.301 et seq.) by amending sections 301, 311, 313, 351, 354, 355, 356, 358, 361, 371, 401, and 891 and repealing sections 302, 357, and 431.
Purpose / Intent
- Clarify and broaden standards for compensability of work-related injuries and diseases, tighten evidentiary rules for establishing disability and wage loss, adjust benefit calculation, and alter burdens of proof and discovery rights between injured workers and employers.
Key provisions (major changes)
- Compensability standard: An injury is compensable if work causes, contributes to, or aggravates pathology — including acceleration or worsening of symptoms or pathology related to preexisting physical or mental conditions. Time/date of injury for disease or non–single-event injuries is defined as the last day of work in the employment where exposure occurred.
- Mental and age-related conditions: Mental disabilities and aging-related conditions (e.g., cardiovascular disease, degenerative arthritis) are compensable if employment significantly contributes, aggravates, or accelerates the condition. Mental conditions must arise from actual workplace events and the employee’s perception must be reasonably grounded in fact.
- Presumption for on-premises travel: Travel to/from work while on employer premises and within a reasonable time before/after hours is presumed in the course of employment; however injuries during primarily social or recreational activities remain excluded.
- Definitions revised: “Disability,” “wage earning capacity,” and “wage loss” are redefined with emphasis on a limitation of wage earning capacity in work suitable to the employee’s qualifications and training (including transferable skills).
- Employee obligations to establish disability: To make an initial showing of disability, the employee must disclose qualifications/training, identify jobs within their pre-injury wage range they are qualified for, show the injury prevents performing those jobs, and, if capable, demonstrate inability to obtain them (including good-faith post-injury job search).
- Burden-shifting and discovery: Once the employee makes an initial showing, the employer bears the burden to produce evidence refuting disability and may pursue discovery to meet that burden. The employee may then submit further evidence.
- Benefit rate change: Weekly compensation for total disability is stated as a percentage of the employee’s after‑tax average weekly wage; the bill increases the replacement ratio shown in the text from 80% to 90%, subject to the statutory maximum weekly rate (section 355). Compensation is payable for the duration of the disability.
- Repeals: Sections 302, 357, and 431 of 1969 PA 317 would be repealed (removing those existing statutory provisions).
Who is affected
- Injured workers (broadens potential eligibility, particularly for aggravated or accelerated preexisting conditions and some mental/age-related conditions).
- Employers and workers’ compensation insurers (broader liability exposure; potential higher benefit payouts and discovery obligations).
- Workers’ compensation magistrates, judges, and attorneys (new evidentiary structures, burdens, and definitions to apply).
- Claim administrators and vocational rehabilitation providers (new emphasis on job-search documentation and assessments of wage-earning capacity).
Procedural / next steps
- Referred to Committee on Economic Competitiveness for hearings, committee amendment, and recommendation to the full House. If reported favorably, the bill would proceed through House floor action and then to the Senate.
Potential fiscal and practical impacts (high-level)
- Likely to increase successful claims by expanding compensability standards and increasing the weekly replacement ratio, potentially raising employer and insurer costs.
- Shifts litigation posture by specifying employee initial proof obligations and granting employers broader discovery rights; may increase administrative and legal activity around vocational proof and job-search documentation.
This summary highlights the bill’s principal substantive changes; readers should consult the full bill text and section-by-section amendments for precise legal language.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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