As a concept, workers' compensation is far from new. Between the late 1800s and early 1900s, workers' compensation systems began to crop up in Germany, Great Britain, and the United States.

Between 1884 and 1886, Germany's Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck introduced a mandatory state-run accident compensation system. Workers and employers financed this initial system.

In Great Britain, the first Workers' Compensation Act passed in 1897. Though there were earlier legal attempts to deal with worker injuries, they depended on proving employer fault. The 1897 Act was different as it made individual employers responsible for compensating injured workers.

In the United States, between 1908 and 1915, several states passed compensation laws. For example, Washington enacted an exclusive mandatory system based on collective liability. However, since individual states had jurisdiction, they each developed workers' compensation differently. Workers' compensation systems vary across the US, and include WCBs, mandatory insurance, self-insurance, and combinations of the three.

Canadian workers' compensation began in Ontario, and laws developed along timelines similar to those in Great Britain. In 1910, Mr. Justice William Meredith was appointed to a Royal Commission to study workers' compensation. In 1913, he produced his final report, known as the Meredith Report.

The Report outlined a trade-off, where workers' give up their right to sue in exchange for compensation benefits. Meredith encouraged no-fault insurance, collective liability, independent administration, and exclusive jurisdiction. The system is arms-length from the government and shielded from political influence, allowing only limited powers to the Minister responsible.

In the NWT, the WCB was created in 1977, modeled after the Meredith Principles. When Nunavut was created in 1999, the governments of Nunavut and the NWT agreed to a shared Workers' Compensation Board. This arrangement continues to this day.