Florida workers comp for small businesses: who must carry it, and who is playing chicken

In Florida, non-construction employers generally must carry workers comp when they have four or more employees. Construction and certain other categories can trigger at one. Officers can sometimes elect to exempt — with filings, not with a vibe. If you are not sure which side of the line you are on, that is the whole appointment.

Exemptions are not a personality. They are a state filing. We will not tell a roofer they are fine because they “don’t believe in comp.” GCs will not believe it either.

Carriers and the state can treat uninsured subcontractors as your employees for premium and for claims. A tidy stack of 1099s without their own comp certificates is how a Palmetto Bay remodeler buys a huge audit. Collect certificates. Put them in a folder. Send us the ones that look wrong.

If someone works only for you, uses your truck, and follows your hours, they may not be an independent contractor no matter what the invoice says. We would rather have that argument in April than at a deposition.

Clerical, sales, and roofing do not cost the same per $100 of payroll. Split payroll honestly. A working owner who still climbs should not be classed as office because the LLC has a virtual mailbox in Doral. The auditor will visit the job.

Experience mods arrive after you have history. A clean three years is an asset. A claim is a conversation, not a secret. We place assigned-risk when the voluntary market is done with you, and we place voluntary when it will take you. Residual is not a moral failing. It is a market.

GCs want to be listed, want a waiver of subrogation, want 30-day notice of cancellation. Some of those are available. Some cost extra. Some your policy cannot give. We read the bid spec before we promise a PDF.

If you need a cert this afternoon, the policy has to exist this morning. Comp is not a same-hour product when you have never had a policy and the NCCI class is a mystery.

FEIN, years in business, payroll by class, officers, whether construction, loss runs if you have them, and the first job that is asking. Start a business quote. An advisor runs it. English, Spanish, Portuguese — same questions, because the state form is not bilingual in the places that hurt.