We have an employee who suffered a minor injury at work and missed a few days. Could we just pay the person for time missed instead of filing a workers' compensation?

No. Employers are required to file all lost time claims. Some employers are concerned that reporting too many injuries to their workers’ compensation carrier will affect their insurance/experience rating, which is why they sometimes consider not filing a claim and paying the employee’s expenses out of pocket. But doing so is often a violation of state workers’ compensation law.

Although a few states do allow certain medical-only claims to be paid out of pocket, lost time claims must be reported to workers’ compensation. If one or more days are missed after the day of injury or illness, it is considered a lost time claim and must be reported.