Florida workers comp questions, answered

It pays medical bills and lost wages when an employee is hurt on the job, under Florida Statutes Chapter 440, administered by the Florida Division of Workers' Compensation. Construction employers need it at the first employee; most other businesses at four. The price is built from your class code, your payroll and your experience modification, and it is trued up at audit.

Construction businesses with one or more employees, non-construction businesses with four or more, and roofing contractors regardless of size, including sole proprietors working alone. In construction, sole proprietors and subcontractors are treated as your employees unless a valid exemption is on file, so their payroll can be pulled into your audit. That single difference, first employee versus fourth, is the most misunderstood point in the niche.

An exemption lets an eligible corporate officer or LLC member opt out of coverage on themselves. It is filed online through the Division's Contractor Certification and Information System (CCIS) with your name, SSN or FEIN, business name and FEIN, position and ownership percentage. Construction applicants pay a $50 fee and complete a required tutorial. It is capped at three exempt officers or members per construction business; with four or more, at least one must be covered. The Division has up to 30 days to review, and an approved exemption is valid for two years. It never covers employees, and an exempt owner injured on the job receives nothing from workers comp: no wage replacement, no medical. Full guide: Florida workers comp exemption.

In Florida construction they are treated as employees unless a valid exemption is on file. A 1099 does not make a worker independent for workers comp purposes, and you can become responsible when a subcontractor lacks required coverage for its employees. Collect the correct entity's certificate, contract, coverage dates and any individual exemption record before work begins.

Payroll in $100 units times the class-code rate, adjusted by your experience modification and carrier factors, then trued up at audit. NCCI class code 5551, Roofing, carries a 2026 Florida filed rate of $6.75 per $100 of payroll. The class code is a starting point, not a self-service decision: the carrier or NCCI matches it to the work actually performed. More: how class codes move the price.

Roughly $8,000 to $25,000 a year for a typical small crew; a range, not a quote. The starting math: $300,000 of roofing payroll at the 2026 filed rate of $6.75 per $100 is $20,250 of manual premium before modification, credits, assessments, policy charges and audit. Worked example: workers comp for Florida roofers.

The mod compares your claims history with businesses of similar size and trade. Above 1.00 it raises premium; below 1.00 it lowers it. A rising mod narrows your voluntary-market options, and that is all it does by itself: no mod number sends you to the assigned-risk pool. Clean records and specific corrective action lower it over time.

The Florida Workers' Compensation Joint Underwriting Association is the state's assigned-risk pool for employers who could not place coverage in the voluntary market after a documented good-faith effort. For rated employers its published rules are: Tier 1, a mod below 1.00 with no lost-time claims and medical-only claims at or under 20% of premium; Tier 2, a mod from 1.00 to 1.10 on the same claim criteria; Tier 3, everything else. Employee leasing and staffing companies are Tier 3 only. Tier 1 is closed to new businesses and to anyone with a coverage lapse; non-rated employers are judged on three years of loss history. Comparison: PEO vs standard policy vs FWCJUA.

Often, for the same payroll, because the leasing company's master policy absorbs the class that a small operation cannot place alone. It is not automatic: the bundled rate includes an administrative fee, the PEO underwrites you on your own history, and the contract decides who is the employer of record, what the certificate names and what happens at termination. Read those three terms before signing.

A certificate of insurance is the one-page proof that coverage is active. It is free once the underlying policy exists, because it is proof of cover already paid for. With an active policy it is often same-day, sometimes within about two hours; complex requests take days. General contractors and project owners require a COI showing both workers comp and general liability before a subcontractor sets foot on site, and DBPR requires every licensed Florida contractor to keep active general liability. More: how fast can I get a COI.

The Division can issue a stop-work order and assess a penalty of two times the premium the employer would have paid. In construction you can also become responsible when a subcontractor lacks required coverage for its employees, and one coverage gap can shut a whole project down. More: if coverage lapses.

Yes. Declined, non-renewed and hard-to-place Florida trades, roofing first, are the focus. WorkCompTeam is a referral service, not an insurer and not a licensed agency: it collects the details of your operation and routes qualified requests to its licensed placement partner, Southeast Personnel Leasing, Inc. (SPLI), a Florida professional employer organization. SPLI, not WorkCompTeam, quotes, binds and issues coverage. Nothing on this site is a quote, a binder or a guarantee of coverage. Request a quote review.