Workers Compensation: A Walk down the Memory Lane Workers Compensation A Walk down the Memory Lane | Page 5

Emergence in the United States
With the majority of European countries taking heed of the Prussian
renaissance, it was in 1897 when the parliament finally passed the
Worker’s Compensation Act. This would mean that the United States
was now open to suggestion regarding her answer towards the
changing times. However what moved the nation was a compelling
work of literature in the form of a novel called ‘The Jungle’ by Upton
Sinclair in 1906. This sparked an unstoppable movement within the
nation which finally led towards the enactment of the first
compensation law for workers in Wisconsin during 1911.
Enlightenment soon spread across the nation and within 36 years, all
states have unanimously agreed to pass their own laws for worker’s
compensation, with Mississippi being the last state to do so in 1948.