The complete guide to workers compensation class codes (2025)

The complete guide to workers compensation class codes (2025)

A workers compensation class code is the four-digit number that decides what your policy costs. Get the code right and your rate matches your actual risk. Get it wrong and you either overpay every month or owe a five-figure audit bill at year-end.

This guide covers every layer: how the codes work, why rates vary 100x between them, which states use NCCI versus an independent bureau versus a monopolistic state fund, how to find your code, and what changes the number once you have it. The data is drawn from 13,833 cells of class-code-by-state rate data we scraped from 25 state insurance department filings, plus state-facts files for all 51 jurisdictions [cells/cells-summary.json].

What NCCI class codes actually do

NCCI is the National Council on Compensation Insurance, a private rate-service organization headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. Founded in 1922, NCCI develops and maintains the classification system used in 36 of the 50 states plus DC. Their core deliverable is the Scopes Manual, which defines what each class code includes, what it excludes, and which related codes might apply.

A class code does three jobs at once.

First, it sorts jobs by injury risk. Class code 8810 (clerical office) sits at the bottom of the rate scale because clerical workers rarely file claims, and when they do, the average claim cost is low. Class code 2702 (logging) sits near the top because tree-falling operations have high claim frequency and high claim severity. The numerical code itself is just a label, but the rate behind the label is built from years of actual loss data filed by every carrier writing the class.

Second, the code drives premium calculation. Manual premium equals payroll divided by 100 multiplied by the class-code rate. A carpentry contractor (NCCI 5403) with $400,000 in California payroll, at the WCIRB advisory pure-premium rate published in the 2024 filing, generates manual premium in the low five figures before any modifiers. The rate is the multiplier; the code is what you look up to find the rate.

Third, the code determines what experience modification factor (EMR) gets applied to your account. EMR is calculated by comparing your actual claims for the most recent three policy years to the expected claims for a business of your size in your class codes. If you have lower-than-expected claims, your EMR goes below 1.00 (a credit). If you have higher-than-expected claims, your EMR goes above 1.00 (a debit). The expected losses are class-code-specific, so the same EMR formula penalizes a carpentry contractor more harshly for a $50,000 claim than it would a clerical employer with the same dollar amount.

The classification process happens at the policy-issuance stage. Your broker or carrier underwriter looks at your operations, matches them to the closest Scopes description, and assigns one or more codes. A general contractor with both office staff and field carpenters typically gets at least two codes on a single policy: 8810 for the office payroll and 5403 for the field payroll. Multi-code policies are normal.

Why rates vary 100x across class codes

The headline finding from our 13,833-cell dataset: the spread between the lowest and highest rates is about 100x.

In the 23 states where we have rate data for both, the median rate for logging (NCCI 2702) is $3.77 per $100 of payroll, and the median rate for beauty salons (NCCI 7610-equivalent) is $0.26 per $100 of payroll [industries/industries-summary.json]. That is a 14.5x spread on the medians. At the extremes, individual states publish logging rates above $40 and clerical rates below $0.18. The full spread crosses two orders of magnitude.

This is not a pricing failure. It is loss-cost economics working as designed. Each class code’s loss cost is the product of two factors:

• Frequency: how many claims occur per $100 of payroll, on average, across all employers in the class.
• Severity: the average claim cost when one occurs.

Logging combines high frequency (heavy machinery, falling timber, remote worksites) with high severity (head and spinal injuries are common in tree-falling accidents). Office clerical has both low frequency (few claims) and low severity (most claims are slip-and-fall or repetitive-strain, which are managed and closed at relatively low cost).

The bureau’s actuaries calculate loss costs from carrier-reported losses adjusted for claim-development tail and inflation, then file the result with the state DOI. The DOI’s actuaries review and either approve, reject, or order modifications. Once approved, the loss cost is the floor: every carrier writing the class in that state has to charge at least the loss cost (some states allow loss-cost-multiplier programs that explicitly multiply the bureau’s loss cost by a carrier-specific number; others let carriers file deviations from the bureau rate).

The 100x spread is not arbitrary. It is the actuarial truth about who gets hurt at work and how badly.

The 11 independent-bureau states, 4 monopolistic state funds, and 36 NCCI states

The US workers compensation market is not one market. It is 51 markets (50 states plus DC) with three structural categories.

The 36 NCCI states. These states use NCCI’s classification system, NCCI’s Scopes Manual, and NCCI’s rate filings, with state-specific approvals from each state DOI. The list includes Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, DC, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.

NCCI files annual loss-cost updates with each state DOI. Approval cycles vary. Texas, for example, uses NCCI loss costs but is the only state where private-employer workers comp coverage is optional [state-facts/TX.json]. Texas employers can choose to be a “non-subscriber” and decline coverage, accepting common-law liability for workplace injuries instead. No other state allows that choice for private employers.

The 11 independent-bureau states. These states maintain their own rate-service organizations. The bureaus differ in formal structure (some are membership-funded mutual organizations, some are quasi-public agencies), but they all do for their state what NCCI does for its 36 states.

• California: WCIRB (wcirb.com)
• New York: NYCIRB
• New Jersey: NJCRIB
• Pennsylvania: PCRB
• Delaware: DCRB
• Massachusetts: WCRIBMA
• Indiana: IDOI (Indiana Compensation Rating Bureau)
• Michigan: CAOM (Compensation Advisory Organization of Michigan)
• Minnesota: MWCIA
• North Carolina: NCRB
• Wisconsin: WCRB

These states’ bureaus often produce more granular industry breakdowns than NCCI does, with faster effective-date cycles. WCIRB’s California rate-filing decisions are some of the most detailed regulatory documents in the industry. If your business operates across NCCI and independent-bureau states, expect different class codes and different rate effective dates in each jurisdiction.

The 4 monopolistic state funds. Ohio (BWC), North Dakota (WSI), Washington (L&I), and Wyoming (DWS) are monopolistic. Private employers cannot buy workers compensation from a private carrier in these states. They must purchase coverage directly from the state agency [state-facts/OH.json, state-facts/ND.json, state-facts/WA.json, state-facts/WY.json].

Ohio BWC has been the only legal workers compensation provider for private Ohio employers since 1912. The agency holds tens of billions in assets and regularly returns dividends to subscribing employers in years of strong investment returns. It also publishes less granular rate-by-classification data than NCCI states do, which is a transparency cost of the monopolistic structure.

The monopolistic states use proprietary classification systems that resemble NCCI’s structure but are not identical. Washington L&I uses a system of risk classifications and sub-classifications. Ohio BWC uses NCCI codes as a base with state-specific overlays. North Dakota WSI and Wyoming DWS publish their own manuals.

Why does this matter for finding your class code? Because the classification you carry in California is not the classification you will carry in Texas, and neither matches what you carry in Ohio. Multi-state employers need separate classification analysis for each state.

How to find your class code

Three paths, in order of reliability.

Path 1: Your current declarations page. If you already have a workers compensation policy, the class codes assigned to your operations are listed on the declarations (dec) page. Each code appears with the assigned payroll, the rate per $100, and any modifiers. This is the highest-confidence source because your underwriter has already approved the classification.

If your carrier is using a wrong code, your dec page is also where you discover it. A common pattern: a contractor expanded into a higher-risk subdivision (residential to commercial roofing, for example) without updating their classification. The expanded operations get audited at year-end, the auditor reclassifies the payroll to the higher-risk code, and the contractor owes the rate difference back-applied to the policy period.

Path 2: Your most recent audit report. Workers comp policies are estimated upfront on projected payroll, then audited at year-end against actual payroll and actual operations. The auditor’s classification decisions are often more accurate than the underwriter’s initial classification because the auditor has seen the actual job duties, paystubs, and subcontractor agreements. If you suspect your dec-page code is wrong, the audit report is the next document to pull.

Path 3: NCCI Scopes Manual or your state bureau’s classification guide. This is the canonical source. NCCI’s Scopes Manual costs $440 per state edition and is paywalled. Independent-bureau states publish their own classification guides; some are free, some are paywalled. The state DOI filings reference the bureau classifications by name and number, and those filings are public records.

For employers who want a free starting point, our class-code search at /class-code/ lets you look up codes by occupation. The descriptions are drawn from publicly-filed state insurance department documents that reference NCCI’s classifications by name. We do not republish Scopes verbatim. We publish enough that you can verify whether a classification is plausible without paying $440.

If you operate in a monopolistic state (OH, ND, WA, WY), check the state-fund classification guide directly. Ohio BWC publishes a free Manual of Classifications. Washington L&I’s risk-class system is searchable by industry on their website [state-facts/OH.json, state-facts/WA.json].

The 50 most-searched class codes with rate ranges

Below are the most common class codes in our dataset, with the median rate per $100 of payroll across all states where the code is filed. These are starting-point benchmarks. Your state’s rate will vary based on the state’s loss experience and the bureau’s annual filing.

For full state-by-state detail on any of these codes, navigate to the dedicated page at /class-code/[code]/.

• 8810, clerical office employees. Median: $0.18 to $0.67 across states. The standard low-risk benchmark.
• 5403, carpentry, residential. Median: $4.80 to $9.20. One of the highest construction codes due to roof and ladder exposure.
• 5190, electrical wiring. Median: $2.80 to $5.40. Lower than carpentry because most electrical work is at lower elevations after rough-in.
• 5474, painting, NOC. Median: $4.20 to $7.80. Ladder and overhead exposure drives the rate.
• 5645, carpentry, commercial dwellings. Median: $5.50 to $11.00.
• 2702, logging or tree pruning. Median: $3.77 nationally, with peaks above $20 in high-loss states.
• 7228, trucking, local. Median: $5.10 to $9.60. Driver-injury frequency drives the rate.
• 7229, trucking, long-haul. Median: $6.20 to $10.80.
• 9079, restaurant. Median: $0.81 to $2.40. Burns and slip-and-fall are the primary loss drivers.
• 9082, restaurant, fast food. Median: $1.20 to $2.90.
• 8829, convalescent or nursing home. Median: $2.40 to $5.10. Resident-handling and back injuries dominate.
• 8832, physician, professional services. Median: $0.40 to $0.90.
• 8833, hospital, professional employees. Median: $0.90 to $2.10.
• 0042, landscape gardening. Median: $2.83 nationally. Power-equipment exposure dominates.
• 9014, janitorial services. Median: $1.63 nationally.
• 9180, amusement parks. Median: $1.80 to $4.20. Highly variable.
• 5022, masonry. Median: $4.50 to $8.20.
• 5102, door installation. Median: $3.20 to $6.10.
• 5645, carpentry, commercial. Median: $5.50 to $11.00.
• 5651, carpenter, dwellings, three stories or less. Median: $4.80 to $9.20.

The full list of 2,243 codes in our database is searchable at /class-code/.

State-by-state benefit basics

Class-code rates set what the employer pays. Benefit caps set what the injured worker receives. Both vary state-by-state, and both come from public state filings.

The four numbers that matter on the worker side, drawn from state-facts/{STATE}.json:

• Maximum weekly TTD benefit. The cap on weekly temporary-total-disability payments. California’s 2024 max is $1,659.23 [state-facts/CA.json]. New York’s 2024 max is $1,196 [state-facts/NY.json]. Texas’s 2024 max is $1,234 [state-facts/TX.json]. The cap adjusts annually, usually tied to the state’s average weekly wage.
• Wage replacement percentage. Most states pay 66.67% (two-thirds) of the worker’s average weekly wage, capped at the maximum above. Washington pays 60% [state-facts/WA.json]. Texas pays 70% [state-facts/TX.json]. Most others sit at 66.67%.
• TTD weeks. The maximum number of weeks of TTD benefits. California caps at 104 weeks [state-facts/CA.json]. New York caps at 520 weeks [state-facts/NY.json]. Wyoming, the monopolistic state, caps at 104 weeks [state-facts/WY.json]. Some states have no cap and continue benefits to maximum medical improvement.
• Statute of limitations. The deadline to file a claim after the injury. Most states are 1 to 2 years. New York is 2 years [state-facts/NY.json]. California is 1 year [state-facts/CA.json]. Texas is 1 year [state-facts/TX.json].

These numbers do not correlate cleanly with the cost-of-coverage side. A high-rate state for employers is not always a high-benefit state for workers. California has both high employer rates and high worker benefits. Texas has moderate employer rates (when they choose to subscribe at all) and moderate worker benefits. The variance is institutional, driven by each state’s reform history and political balance.

For full state detail, navigate to /state/[code]/. Every state page includes the four headline benefit numbers, the rating-authority identity (NCCI, independent bureau, or monopolistic fund), the schedule of losses for body-part-specific PPD, and the rate ranges for the 50 most-common class codes in that state.

Independent contractor versus employee: the 1099 question

Workers compensation only covers employees. The penalty for misclassifying employees as 1099 contractors is one of the largest single risks to small-business WC compliance.

The penalty in California is up to $100,000 plus stop orders and potential criminal charges [state-facts/CA.json]. New York imposes fines of up to $5,000 per 10-day period of non-compliance [state-facts/NY.json]. Texas, where coverage is optional, still applies the common-law test to determine employee status, and a misclassified worker who is injured can sue the employer in tort outside the workers-comp exclusive-remedy framework [state-facts/TX.json].

The classification tests vary by state. California uses the ABC test established by Dynamex and codified in AB 5: a worker is an employee unless (A) they are free from the hiring entity’s control, (B) they perform work outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business, and (C) they are customarily engaged in an independently established trade. Failing any of the three prongs makes the worker an employee for workers-comp purposes [state-facts/CA.json].

Most other states use a multi-factor common-law test focused on the right of control: who controls the means and manner of the work, who provides the tools, who sets the schedule, who pays the worker, and how the work fits the hiring entity’s business. Texas uses this approach [state-facts/TX.json]. Washington uses a variant with strict criteria, making misclassification a significant risk in the state [state-facts/WA.json].

We dedicate a full page to this topic at /articles/1099-vs-w2-workers-comp. If you have any 1099 contractors on your operation, read it before your next renewal.

Audit, schedule credit, and EMR: what changes your rate

The class code sets the manual rate. Three modifiers change what you actually pay.

The year-end audit. Workers comp is a pay-on-payroll product. You estimate annual payroll at the start of the policy and pay premium based on the estimate. At year-end (or shortly after), the carrier audits actual payroll and reclassifies any operations that drifted. If actual payroll exceeded the estimate, you owe additional premium. If it came in under, you get a refund credit. If the auditor reclassifies any payroll to a higher-rated code, you owe the difference back-applied to the policy period.

The audit window in most states is 90 days post-policy [state-facts/CA.json, state-facts/TX.json, state-facts/NY.json]. Some states allow longer. Some carriers self-impose tighter deadlines. The audit is where small-business cash flow goes to die. For details on how to prepare and how to dispute findings, see /articles/audit-defense-checklist.

Schedule credit and debit. Most states allow underwriters to apply a schedule modification of plus or minus a state-specific maximum. California, New York, and Texas all cap schedule credits at 25% [state-facts/CA.json, state-facts/NY.json, state-facts/TX.json]. The underwriter applies the credit (or debit) based on subjective factors: management quality, safety program rigor, premises condition, employee training, and so on. Schedule credits are negotiable at renewal.

Experience modification rate (EMR). EMR is the multiplier insurers apply to your manual premium based on three years of claims history. An EMR of 1.00 is average. Below 1.00 is a credit (you outperformed the class average). Above 1.00 is a debit (you underperformed). EMR is calculated by NCCI or the independent bureau using a fixed formula, with the most recent three policy years (excluding the current one) feeding the calculation.

A single severe claim can push your EMR above 1.30, which compounds across every renewal until the claim ages out of the three-year window. Conversely, claim-free years pull EMR toward 0.85 or lower for credit-eligible accounts. For full detail on how the formula works and which interventions move EMR, see /articles/emr-explained.

Methodology

The data backing this site comes from three sources, all public.

State insurance department rate filings. We pull the most recent NCCI loss-cost filing or independent-bureau rate filing approved by each state DOI. These filings reference class codes by NCCI number (or state-bureau number) with the bureau’s filed loss cost or rate per $100 of payroll. We extract the cells, normalize the format, and store them in cells/cells-summary.json. Current count: 13,833 cells across 25 states.

State-facts files. Each of the 51 jurisdictions has a state-facts/{STATE}.json file with the maximum weekly benefit, the wage-replacement percentage, the TTD and PPD week caps, the death-benefit structure, the statute of limitations, the rating-authority identity, the state-fund name and URL, and the source-citation URLs. The data is enriched against statute and regulatory text and cross-validated against the source DOI page.

Settlement charts. Each state has a settlement-charts/{STATE}.json file with the body-part-specific PPD week caps where the state uses a fixed schedule, the lawyer fee cap, and the relevant statute citations. Where the state uses an impairment-rating system instead of a fixed schedule (California, Florida, and others), the schedule notes record that and point to the AMA Guides edition the state has adopted.

The data files are versioned, time-stamped with _enriched_at, and re-verified on a quarterly cycle. The first refresh is scheduled for Q2 of every year, when most states publish updated max-weekly benefit numbers.

We do not republish proprietary rate-bureau manuals. We publish the publicly-filed loss costs and the publicly-cited statutes, and we link to the state DOI source where readers can verify any individual number.

Frequently asked questions

What is a workers compensation class code? A four-digit code that classifies a job by injury risk and drives the rate per $100 of payroll. NCCI maintains 700+ codes used in 36 states; 11 independent-bureau states maintain their own systems; 4 monopolistic state funds use proprietary systems.

Why does my class code matter so much? Because rates vary 100x between codes. Office clerical (8810) sits at $0.18 to $0.67 per $100. Logging (2702) sits at $3.77 nationally. The difference between assigning a worker to one code versus an adjacent code can change your annual premium by tens of thousands of dollars.

Can I change my class code? You cannot unilaterally change it, but you can dispute a classification with your carrier or file a complaint with your state DOI. Reclassification disputes are common after a year-end audit reassigns payroll to a higher-rate code. Document the actual job duties carefully, request a written underwriter review, and escalate to the state DOI’s market-conduct division if the carrier refuses to engage.

Do I need different class codes for different employees? If your employees perform meaningfully different operations, yes. A general contractor with both office staff and field carpenters typically has at least two codes on one policy: 8810 for office payroll and 5403 (or similar carpentry code) for field payroll. The split must be supportable from payroll records.

What happens if my carrier assigns the wrong code? You either overpay or underpay until the year-end audit. If the auditor catches an under-classification, you owe the difference plus possible penalties. If the under-classification was discovered after the policy period closed, the carrier can still pursue back-premium for up to three years in most states.

How often do class-code rates change? Loss costs are filed annually by NCCI or the independent bureau and approved by the state DOI. Most states see a single rate-change effective date per policy year. Carrier rates (loss costs multiplied by carrier-specific loss-cost multipliers) can change more often within the year.

Are workers comp rates regulated? Yes. Every state DOI reviews and approves bureau-filed loss costs. Some states use a “loss-cost-multiplier” framework where carriers file deviation factors against the bureau loss cost. Other states use a “competitive-rating” framework with broader carrier discretion. Texas and California use loss-cost frameworks. New York uses a competitive system.

What is the best way to lower my workers comp premium? Three things: verify your class codes are correctly assigned, manage claims aggressively to lower your EMR, and negotiate schedule credit at renewal. The largest single lever for a small employer is usually classification accuracy. The largest single lever for a mid-size employer is usually EMR management.

This is general information, not legal or insurance advice. Consult a licensed broker or attorney for your situation.