1911: California adopts the Roseberry Act, a voluntary plan of workers’ compensation benefits.
1913: The existing Industrial Accident Board, charged by the Boynton Act to begin the State Compensation Insurance Fund, hires our first employee, our manager, Claude W. Fellows.
1914: We open our doors Jan. 1 in San Francisco’s Underwood Building, 525 Market Street, with an appropriation of $100,000, and a staff that grows to 25 people by mid-year. There is an additional allocation of $68,000 in case we “should be unable to write a sufficient volume of business” to pay expenses. The seed money proves to be unneeded, as business grows quickly and 4,417 applications are received. We finish our first year with $547,161 in premium.
In April, the creation of an Inspection Department begins our accident prevention efforts.
1915: The California Inspection Rating Bureau is established. After Oct. 1 it becomes illegal “for any carrier to insure at rates less than those approved by the insurance commissioner.”
1917: The number of young men leaving for military service as the U.S enters World War I causes a staff shortage. Manager Claude Fellows sends a memo to the “Office Force”: “Should any person on our present staff know of one or more young men from 16 to 20 years of age who would like to accept office work at a salary of $40 monthly to start, I trust the information will be given to me.”
1918: In December, a memo to employees notes that influenza “has spread rather alarmingly and has reached a stage which is considered epidemic…. All employees should begin again the wearing of gauze masks.”
1919: At the halfway point of the year, we report we had in “reserve for unpaid losses the following amounts for the years: 1914: $10,088; 1915: $22,346; 1916-1919: $1,547,061.”