Industry premium comparator

How this tool works

Workers comp manual rates per $100 of payroll are filed at the state level by class code, with each state's rating bureau (NCCI in 38 states, independent in CA, NY, MN, NJ, MA, DE, PA, ID, MI, WI, IN, NC, TX, monopolistic in OH, ND, WA, WY). Across all those filings, the same class code can rate 0.5 in one state and 4.5 in another. Aggregating to the industry level smooths the volatility but the cross-state spread remains substantial.

The tool aggregates by industry slug, rolling up all the class codes mapped to that industry across every state we have a rate cell for. Median is computed across states (each state contributes its own intra-industry median of all class codes in the industry). Range is min to max state median. Q1 to Q3 covers the middle half of states. Cheapest 5 and priciest 5 are state rankings.

"Top class codes" are the codes most commonly filed for the industry, ranked by cell count (number of distinct state-class code rate cells we have for the code). This is a measure of universality (how many states recognize and rate the code), not popularity (how many businesses use it). For an industry like construction, codes like 5645 (carpentry, residential) and 5183 (plumbing) are universal; for an industry like services, codes like 8810 (clerical) and 8742 (outside salesperson) are universal.

Use cases: (1) Benchmark your state, if you are paying above the priciest 5 median, your specific class code or Mod is the explanation. (2) Sanity-check a quote, if a carrier is quoting you 3x the median for your industry, ask why. (3) Model relocation, if your industry is unusually expensive in your state and you have flexibility on location, the comparator quantifies the rate gap. Relocation rarely makes sense for workers comp alone, but combined with corporate income tax and labor cost differentials, it can move the needle for very large payrolls.