Print Shop Workers' Comp After You Buy

Print shop workers' comp premium is your payroll, split into classes, times a state-approved rate and your experience mod (a score for the seller's claims history). A buyer usually inherits that score. The class the seller used, such as printing or quick printing, and how designers, counter staff and drivers were treated can change your audit bill after you close. This guide is for buyers of print shops. The class numbers below come from one rating bureau's wording, vary by state and are assigned by the insurer, so none is a ruling on your shop.

The short answer

Manual premium is generally payroll divided by 100, times the rate for each class, times the experience mod, before any other state-specific adjustments. Rates, rules and class wording vary by state.
Under National Council rules, a new LLC does not reset the mod. The seller's experience usually follows the business, excluding it is rare, and the change generally must be reported to the insurer within 90 days.
Print shops often have several payroll groups: press and bindery, prepress and design, counter, outside sales and delivery. Ask how each was classified.
An audit can reclassify payroll and bill the named insured on the policy, including for pre-closing periods, so keep payroll by duty from day one.
Class numbers differ by state and bureau, and the insurer or rating bureau decides.

How does workers' comp work for a print shop, in plain words?

Premium is generally a state-approved rate per $100 of payroll for each class code, times the payroll in that class, with the experience modification (mod) then applied. A class code classifies the business, not each employee's job, and the insurer assigns it based on what the shop does. In a print shop that can mean press and bindery payroll, counter payroll, design payroll and delivery driver payroll each carrying a different rate. Our glossary pages on class codes and the experience mod give the basics.

Rules depend on the state: most use National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) data, 11 use independent bureaus, and North Dakota, Ohio, Washington and Wyoming require the state fund, whose policy does not include employers liability, so shops there usually add stop gap coverage. Texas lets most private employers opt out. See the workers' comp review.

How will my press crew, designers and drivers be classified?

The table uses the Wisconsin Compensation Rating Bureau's class wording as printed in October 2026. Wisconsin is an independent bureau state. Its class numbers are often similar to National Council codes but its wording can differ, so use the table to know what to ask, not as the answer, and never read a code in it as the code for your shop. Generally the printing class takes the shop's production employees together. The splits below come from standard exceptions, drivers wording and separate operations. The sales, driver and clerical rows mainly matter if the shop is rated as printing (4299 in this wording), because the quick printing wording already includes those staff. Ask which wording your insurer applied.

Print shop payroll groups and Wisconsin bureau wording
Payroll group	What the Wisconsin wording says	Question for your insurer
Press, plate and finishing staff	Class 4299 (Printing) includes incidental assembling, stapling or binding of pamphlets and catalogues. Separate classes exist for photoengraving, including making offset plates, and for bookbinding. Whether in-house plate or bindery work is rated separately depends on the wording and on whether the operation is separate and distinct.	Is my operation rated as printing, and are any operations separate and distinct?
Quick printing counter staff	Class 8015 covers quick printing and includes clerical employees, salespersons and drivers. Clerical class 8810 does not apply to copy operations done for the public	Is our work quick printing, or do other methods put us in printing?
Designers, artists and proofreaders	Rated as clerical 8810 in the printing wording	Is design payroll separated, and do any of these staff do shop-floor work?
Outside sales	Class 8742 for salespersons who work away from the premises and do not deliver goods	Do salespeople ever deliver? If so, that payroll can move
Drivers delivering the shop's own jobs	Under the printing wording, employees who deliver products the employer owns fall under the drivers class even if they also sell. Quick printing wording already includes drivers	How much payroll is driving, and is it recorded? If we are rated as quick printing, does the class already include drivers and salespersons?
Sign graphics and installation	Installation away from the shop is separately rated, and sign work with painting or power machinery is a different class from printing	Do we install, and how is it split?
Mailing and addressing	A separate class for mailing or addressing companies	Is mailing a distinct operation here?

The same bureau note says classes 4299 and 8015 must not be assigned to the same employer unless the quick printing operation is a separate and distinct business, and that an employer that uses methods other than quick printing, or whose principal activity is an add-on such as binding or mailing, must be rated 4299. Ask the seller which class was used and why. See class code corrections.

Do I inherit the seller's claims history (the experience mod)?

The experience mod usually follows the business. In a print deal where you hire the press and bindery crew and run the same machines, you may look like the successor the rule describes, and the rating organization makes that call. NCCI treats buying stock or membership interests, buying assets and taking over operations, a merger, or forming a successor entity as a change of ownership, so an asset purchase into a brand new company still counts. Do not assume a new LLC starts at 1.00.

Report the change. The policy requires notice to the insurer within 90 days, and the rating organization, not the insurer or broker, decides how the mod is affected.

Under current NCCI rules a recalculated mod applies back to the date of the change, up or down, and failing to report within 90 days can be treated as evading the mod, which lets the rating organization correct it.
Some independent bureaus time it differently, and small shops may have no mod at all below a state's premium threshold.
In North Dakota, Ohio, Washington and Wyoming the state fund sets its own rules, so the NCCI ownership rules above do not apply as written. Ohio and Washington also have successor liability rules for state fund premium, so ask counsel and the state fund before closing.

See how to check your experience mod.

What can an audit change after you close?

The premium on a policy is an estimate. After the policy ends the insurer sets final premium from actual payroll and the correct classes, and it can audit the records during the policy and for up to three years afterward. In a stock deal the company is the named insured, so a post-closing audit can bill it for pre-closing payroll, and the purchase agreement decides who bears the cost. Ask deal counsel.

A hypothetical example. After closing, an audit finds that the shop runs a full-size offset press and a large bindery line, so it is not only quick printing, and the insurer moves $400,000 of payroll from quick printing to printing. Suppose the new class rate is $1.50 per $100 higher: that is $6,000 of added premium on $400,000 of payroll, before the mod. Separately, the audit finds that one designer also runs a press half the day. The shop has no time records, so that employee's whole pay can go to the higher-rated class. Records of time and pay in each class are what prevent that. The numbers are invented for illustration only.

The policy base also includes pay to others whose work could make the insurer liable, which is how uninsured freelancers and delivery contractors can end up on the bill. A certificate showing the contractor carries its own comp, or true independent contractor or exempt status under state law, usually keeps the pay off the audit base. Rules vary by state, so ask counsel and your insurer, and see 1099 contractors and the audit bill and payroll estimates and surprise audit bills.

How should you set up payroll records in month one?

Pull payroll by employee for the last two years and tag each person by main duty: press, prepress, bindery, counter, design, sales, driving, installation.
Start recording time by class for anyone who splits duties. The NCCI Basic Manual as published for North Carolina does not allow estimates or percentage splits, and Oregon has a similar records rule (Oregon Administrative Rule 836-042-0060). Other states differ, so ask your insurer.
Collect certificates and proof of comp from freelancers, delivery contractors and subcontractors before they work.
If a professional employer organization (PEO) or payroll provider handled comp for the seller, confirm what ends at closing. See changing payroll providers without a gap.
Ask the insurer for the last two audits and compare them with actual duties.
Ask how your own pay is treated. Whether an owner or executive officer must be covered, may be excluded, or is counted at a set payroll amount depends on state law and bureau rules. Ask the insurer, and ask your attorney before you exclude yourself. Time you spend on the shop floor may change the answer.
Keep injury logs from day one. Small employers are partly exempt from routine recordkeeping, but the duty to report a death, hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye generally still applies. See what drives insurance cost for a print shop for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reporting rules.

The core stack is in insurance after you buy a print shop. Morrow can review the class wording on inherited policies, flag gaps and request quotes, and the rating bureau and carrier make the decisions.

Keep reading

Frequently asked questions

Does buying a print shop through a new LLC reset the experience mod?

Usually not. Under National Council rules an asset purchase into a new company still counts as a change of ownership, and the seller's experience usually transfers. Independent bureaus such as California's apply their own tests, so ask your insurer how and when to report the change. In National Council states the window is 90 days.

Are print shop designers classified as clerical for workers' comp?

In the Wisconsin bureau's printing wording, designers and artists are rated as clerical, but wording differs by state and a designer who also works on the shop floor can change the result. Ask your insurer how your state treats them.

Why did my audit raise my workers' comp premium?

The policy premium is an estimate. After the term, the insurer uses actual payroll and the correct classes, so growth, new duties or a different class can add a balance. Keep payroll by duty and time records.

Do I still owe premium for the period before I bought?

Often the named insured on the policy owes any audit balance. In a stock deal that is the company you now own. In an asset deal it is normally the seller, but the purchase agreement and some state successor rules decide, so ask counsel.

Do I have to cover myself as the new owner of a print shop?

It depends on your state and how the business is organized. Ask the insurer how owner pay is counted and ask your attorney before excluding yourself.

References

Just bought a business? Get your insurance reviewed.

Send Morrow the declarations pages, loss runs and key contracts you inherited. Morrow can review them against the business you bought, flag gaps and request quotes where it makes sense. Any new terms depend on carrier underwriting.

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This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice, and not a coverage determination. Coverage depends on the actual policy wording, carrier underwriting, your purchase agreement and your contracts. Ask your attorney and accountant about deal and legal questions.

Workers' Comp, Payroll and Class Codes After You Buy a Print Shop