In 1911 Wisconsin became the first state to pass a worker compensation law in which employers provided workers with insurance that covered injury or death in return for workers giving up their right to sue employers. This law, referred to as “The Great Trade Off” is considered the first true worker compensation law passed by any state. By 1948, all 48 states and Hawaii and Alaska had passed worker compensation laws. Currently, worker compensation is mandatory in all states except Texas and New Jersey. The Washington state worker compensation law provides a typical example of benefits for injured workers. “Benefits include (1) time loss payments during periods that the worker is medically disabled, (2) health care expenses, (3) vocational retraining benefits in the discretion of the Department if the worker is medically unable to return to his or her job at time of injury and doesn’t have readily transferable skills, (4) a permanent partial disability payment if there is a medically ratable impairment at the end of the claim, (5) if the worker is found to be permanently disabled, the worker may qualify for a total disability pension.”