Yes, if you are a corporate officer or an LLC member. Georgia lets up to five of you per company opt out by filing Form WC-10 with your insurer. Sole proprietors and partners are already out, and would file to opt in instead. Who this is for: Georgia contractors who own the business and work in it.
The short version
- Corporate officers and LLC members are covered by default in Georgia. Up to five per company can opt out with Form WC-10.
- Sole proprietors and partners are not covered by default. They can opt in by telling the insurer.
- Opting out does not shrink your headcount. Excluded officers still count toward Georgia's three-employee rule.
- An excluded owner who gets hurt pays their own medical bills and lost income, and many health plans deny work injuries.
- Your opt-out starts only when the form reaches your insurer. A claim before that date is covered, one after it is not.
Who can opt out of workers comp in Georgia, and how?
Georgia's owner rules run in opposite directions depending on how your business is set up. Find your row.
| How your Georgia business is set up | Are you covered by default? | Can you change it? | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporation (C-corp or S-corp) | Yes. Officers are employees of the corporation. | Yes. Up to five officers can opt out. | File Form WC-10 with your insurer, naming each officer and the office held |
| LLC | Yes. Members are treated like officers. | Yes. Up to five members can opt out. | Same Form WC-10 with your insurer |
| Sole proprietor | No. Georgia treats you as the employer. | Yes. You can opt in. | Tell your insurer you elect to be covered |
| Partnership | No. Partners are employers, not employees. | Yes. Partners can opt in. | Tell your insurer you elect to be covered |
The opt-out is not effective until the form is filed with the insurer, or with the State Board of Workers Compensation if you have no insurer. Keep a stamped copy. See workers comp for a Georgia LLC and workers comp for a Georgia corporation.
Does opting out get me under Georgia's three-employee rule?
No, and this is the trap. Georgia counts heads, not policies. Once a business regularly has three or more people, including part-timers, it needs workers comp, and an owner who opted out still counts as one of the three.
So a three-officer S-corp where all three file the form still counts as three employees and stays subject to Georgia's Act. If it hires one field employee, that person must be covered from day one. If it has no other employees there is nobody left to cover, but the first hire triggers the policy immediately.
How much does excluding myself save in Georgia?
Roughly your own payroll times the rate for your trade, adjusted by your claims multiplier. No Georgia class rate table is published here. The ranges below are national illustrative figures. Your Georgia rate is your insurer's own pricing applied to NCCI's loss cost for your class code.
| Owner's trade | Illustrative national rate range per $100 of payroll | Illustrative yearly saving on $65,000 of owner pay |
|---|---|---|
| Electrical | About $2 to $5 | About $1,300 to $3,300 |
| Plumbing or heating and cooling | About $3 to $6 | About $2,000 to $3,900 |
| Carpentry or framing | About $6 to $14 | About $3,900 to $9,100 |
| Owner who works only in the office | Under $1 | Under $650 |
Your draw is not always the number that gets rated. An included officer or member is charged on actual pay, but within a minimum and a maximum set for owners, so a low paid owner is still rated on the minimum and a high paid one is capped. Ask your insurer which figure it will use.
Notice the last row. An owner who already sits in the office is rated so low that opting out saves almost nothing. The owners who save most are the ones on ladders and roofs, who are also most likely to need the coverage.
What do I give up if I opt out in Georgia?
- Medical bills. Workers comp pays them in full with no deductible. Many health plans exclude injuries that happen at work.
- Lost income. Workers comp pays a share of your wages while you cannot work. Nothing else does unless you bought disability coverage.
- Some contracts. Some Georgia general contractors will not accept a certificate that shows the owner excluded. Check your contracts before you file.
How do I file Form WC-10 in Georgia?
Your broker or insurer will usually fill it in with you. The form names each officer or member by name and by the office held. It goes to your insurer, not to the state, unless you have no policy, and the same form takes you back in later. Ask your broker to confirm in writing the date the election took effect, because a claim the week before it was filed is covered and a claim the week after is not. See the national version of this question.
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: Two members of a roofing LLC in Columbus each draw about $62,000 and both work on roofs with four employees. Illustrative roofing rates are high, so covering both members costs about $14,000 a year. They file Form WC-10 for both to save it.
What went wrong: Sixteen months later one member falls from a second story eave. Medical bills reach $41,000. His health plan denies the claim as a work injury, and he is off roofs for nine weeks with no income. The LLC still carries a policy for its four employees, because the two excluded members still count toward the three.
What it cost: The $41,000 in bills came out of the business, plus about $10,700 in lost draw. The premium saved over sixteen months was about $18,700, so one fall wiped it out twice over.
The fix: Excluding a working owner is a bet that you will never get hurt. Consider excluding only an owner who stays in the office, or keep both covered and shop the rate instead.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Can I exclude myself from workers comp in Georgia?
If you are a corporate officer or LLC member, yes, up to five per company, using Form WC-10. Sole proprietors and partners are already out and can opt in instead. The two rules run opposite ways, so check your entity type first.
Q: If I opt out, do I still count toward Georgia's three-employee rule?
Yes. Opted-out officers and members still count. A company with three officers who all opt out still has to carry workers comp for any other employee.
Q: Is my whole draw used to work out the saving?
Not always. An owner who stays on the policy is rated on actual pay, but within a minimum and a maximum owner payroll figure. A low paid owner is rated on the minimum and a high paid one is capped.
Q: How much does excluding myself save in Georgia?
Roughly your own pay times your trade rate. National illustrative ranges put a working tradesman on $65,000 somewhere in the low thousands a year, and an owner who works only in the office near a few hundred. Your Georgia insurer's own filed pricing decides it.
Q: If I exclude myself and get hurt on the job, who pays?
You do. Workers comp will not pay, and many health plans deny injuries that happen at work. There is also no wage replacement unless you bought disability coverage separately.
Q: Will a Georgia general contractor accept my certificate if I am excluded?
Many will, but some will not, because they do not want an uninsured person on their site. Read the subcontract before you file the form.
How Morrow helps
Morrow is a licensed independent commercial insurance brokerage that works with contractors and trades every day. Working out whether a Georgia owner should stay on the workers comp policy, and pricing it both ways, is one of the most common things contractors ask us to do.
- 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.