Yes. True office staff are rated in a low-cost office category, not at your crew's rate. On the illustrative rates below that category costs a small fraction of any field trade, so a bookkeeper charged at your crew's rate is probably costing you thousands a year. Who this is for: contractors and trade business owners with at least one person in the office and a workers comp bill that shows only one job category.
The short version
- Office work has its own low-rate category; field work carries the trade rate. On illustrative rates the gap is many times over.
- To qualify, the employee must do office work only, in a space separated from the shop, yard, and job sites.
- Illustrative math: $50,000 of office payroll costs about $200 a year in the office category and $4,000 at a framing rate.
- An employee who does both office and field work is usually rated at the field rate for the whole year.
- Check the page of your policy that lists your job categories. If there is no office line, ask for a review.
Why do office staff cost less to insure?
Workers comp rates follow injury costs. A framer falls from a ladder. A bookkeeper gets a sore wrist. The groups that set the job category rules, one per state, track claims by category (they call them class codes). Office work has some of the lowest injury costs of any work, so its rate sits near the bottom of the table. North Dakota, Ohio, Washington, and Wyoming run their own state fund systems, and Washington charges by hours worked rather than payroll, but office work is the cheapest category there too. See what a workers comp class code is.
Who counts as office staff?
The office category has a narrow definition. The employee's duties must be office work: bookkeeping, payroll, phones, scheduling, permits, filing. And the work must happen in a space physically separated from the shop, the yard, and the job sites. The table shows how common roles usually come out.
| Role | Usually office rated? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Bookkeeper in a separate office | Yes | Office work only, away from the work area (code 8810 in most states) |
| Office manager who runs payroll, phones, and permits | Yes | Same reason, if they stay out of the shop |
| Employee doing office work from home | Often | Many states have an office category for remote work |
| Dispatcher who walks into the shop for keys or parts | Usually no | Exposed to the shop, so most states apply the shop or field rate |
| Estimator or project manager who visits job sites | No | Site visits take them out of the office category |
| Owner who does paperwork and also checks on jobs | No | Mixed duties are rated at the field rate, unless the owner is excluded |
How much less does office staff workers comp cost?
The rates below are illustrative. Your state, insurer, and claims history set the real number. The point is the size of the gap.
| Job category | Illustrative rate per $100 | Annual premium on $50,000 of payroll |
|---|---|---|
| Office | $0.40 | $200 |
| Electrical | $5.00 | $2,500 |
| Framing carpentry | $8.00 | $4,000 |
| Roofing | $25.00 | $12,500 |
A roofing company with one $50,000 office employee rated as a roofer could be overpaying by about $12,300 a year. More ranges are in how much workers comp costs per employee.
What counts as a separate office?
In most states it means the office is its own room, with walls and a door, and the employee does not walk through the work area or handle materials during the day. The office can be in the same building as the shop. A desk in the corner of the warehouse does not qualify. A front office with its own entrance usually does.
What if an employee does both office and field work?
This is where most owners get a surprise. For two construction categories, most states let you divide one employee's payroll if your original payroll records show the real hours in each. A percentage split at year end is not accepted, and if the records fall short the whole of that payroll goes to the highest rated work they did. For office and field work, most states do not allow the division at all, so the person who runs the office three days a week and works on the crew for two is rated entirely at the crew rate.
How do I get office staff rated correctly?
- Look at the page of your policy that lists your categories. If there is no office line, that is the problem.
- Send your broker a job description for each office employee, a photo or floor plan of the office, and payroll by employee.
- Ask for the office category to be added, and ask how far back the change can apply.
- Keep the office truly separate. At the year-end payroll check (the premium audit), the auditor may visit and will ask where each person works. See understanding your premium audit.
What this looks like in real life
Illustrative example. It is typical of what we see and is not a promise of how any specific situation would be handled.
The setup: An electrical contractor in New Jersey has $80,000 of office payroll: a full-time office manager at $55,000 and a part-time assistant at $25,000. Both work in a front office with its own door, walled off from the shop. The policy has one category, electrical, at an illustrative $4.50 per $100.
What went wrong: The owner set up the policy online four years earlier and answered "electrical contractor" with a total payroll figure. Nobody asked about the office, so all of it was rated as electrical work.
What it cost: Illustrative math: $80,000 at $4.50 per $100 is $3,600 a year. At an office rate of $0.35 it is $280. The overpayment was about $3,320 a year, or more than $13,000 over four years.
The fix: The broker sent the insurer both job descriptions and a photo of the office. The office category was added and the current year was recalculated from the policy start. Earlier years were much harder to recover.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Should workers comp cost less for office staff than field employees?
Yes. True office staff are rated in a category that costs a small fraction of any trade rate. If your policy shows only your trade and you have office employees, you are probably overpaying.
Q: What if my office person sometimes drops off materials at a job site?
That usually costs the office rate for that employee's whole year, not just the day of the delivery. In most states an office employee who takes on any other duty has all of their pay moved to the highest rated work they did. Let field staff run deliveries.
Q: Is an estimator office staff?
Usually not, if the estimator visits job sites. Some states have other categories for estimators and project managers that cost less than the trade rate. Ask your broker how your state handles it.
Q: Do employees who work from home get the office rate?
Often yes. Many states have an office category for employees who do office work from home. The same rule applies: office work only, no site visits or shop time.
Q: Can I just call everyone office staff to save money?
No. At the year-end payroll check the auditor asks where each person works and what they do, and may visit. Payroll that does not qualify is moved back to the trade rate, and you are billed for the difference.
Q: How do I prove my office staff are office staff at the audit?
Job descriptions, payroll records by employee, and a floor plan or photos of the office. If the auditor visits, a separate office with a door makes the case.
Rules and prices differ by state. There is a local version of this guide for Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Texas.
How Morrow helps
Morrow is a licensed independent commercial insurance brokerage that works with contractors and trades every day. Getting a contractor's office staff out of the field rate is one of the quickest savings we find on a workers comp policy.
- Free contract review. Send us the contract or bid documents and we mark up the insurance section in plain English, whether or not you buy anything from us.
- Free, instant certificates. Clients issue their own certificates of insurance online in about a minute, any hour, any day, at no charge.
- Markets you cannot reach online. One application, shopped across many insurance companies for general liability, workers comp, auto, umbrella, and pollution coverage.
One more thing. This article is general information and is not legal advice or a statement of coverage. Your contract and your policy wording control in every case. Requirements vary by customer, by state, and by insurance company, so have a licensed advisor review your own contract and your own policy before relying on any of it.
Last updated: Reviewed by the Morrow commercial lines team. Last updated September 2026.