Florida Workers Compensation Insurance Frequent Questions

1. What is workers compensation insurance?
2. What does workers compensation cover?
3. How does workers compensation work?
4. What affects my rates?
5. Where can I find the forms I need?
6. What is the price of Workers Compensation insurance?
7. Is insurance for Workers Compensation required in Florida?
8. We are a drywall business with less than 3 employees do we have to have workers comp?
9. If you fail to make payments and your policy is canceled, it will be hard to get workers comp again?
10. Which industries often carry Workers Compensation insurance?
11. I work for a lawn service company. Does my employer have to carry workmans comp for me?
12. Can I include a contractor I hire with a 1099 on my workers comp insurance policy?
13. My dad has a business where some fiberglass work and carpentry work is done we have 2 guys that come and work with us and they get a 1099. Do we have to have workers comp? We do have liability insurance Thanks, being harrassed from the owner of the whole property who allows others on their property with just liabilty.
14. Will be starting business in Florida. Researching W/C find that each county in Florida requires that contractor register and that they be named as “certificate holder”. Does this mean a separate policy for each county or is there one policy with multiple counties named or all counties named?
15. How much worker comp is required in the state of Florida for a restaurant?
16. I work for myself how do I get a quote?
17. Can you provide insurance anywhere in the state?
18. Do you work in any other states?

What is Florida Workers Compensation Insurance?

This insurance pays benefits to your employees if they are injured while on the job. Specifically, it covers their medical bills, a portion of lost wages, vocational rehabilitation and death benefits. Almost every state requires by law that employers carry some form of workers compensation insurance. Because the coverage amount is established by state law, benefits do not vary from company to company within the same state. Limit exposure from your employees with Florida Workers Compensation Insurance.

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What does workers compensation cover?

Workers compensation covers all the employees of the small business. Special provisions must be made if employees work out-of-state. It can cover the business owner if the business is a corporation, and the owner is actively involved in the business. It does not cover independent contractors.

Benefits paid to employees generally include:

• Unlimited Reimbursement of Medical Expense
• Portion of Lost Wages
• Some Vocational Rehabilitation
• Survivors Death Benefits

Benefits paid to employees generally include:

• Responses to lawsuits brought by injured employees or their dependents for grossly negligent acts by the employer
• Protection against employee claims for pain and suffering and loss of relationship (except in North Dakota, Nevada, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming and Ohio)

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How does workers compensation work?

When a worker suffers an injury, even a minor one, it is immediately reported to the workers compensation insurance carrier. The employee seeks necessary medical attention, and the insurance company pays the bills. If the employee misses work because of the injury, the insurance company pays the employee limited benefits for the lost time. If the employee is not able to return to the job due to a permanent injury, the insurer pays to re-train the employee for another line of work. If the employee dies, the insurer pays a death benefit to the employee’s family.

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What affects my Florida Workers Compensation Insurance rates?

Price of Florida Workers Compensation Insurance premiums are based directly on the amount of your payroll. The higher your payroll, the more in workers compensation premiums you will pay! Job classifications The cost of workers compensation insurance also varies widely depending on the work function of an employee. In general, a premium for an employee who is a roofer is much higher than a premium for a clerical worker. Employers must accurately report payroll by classification of work performed. Your insurance company can advise you which classes apply to your employees.

Workers Compensation Forms

• Information Sheet for Quote
• Blank Resume Form
• State Exemption Application
• State Election of Coverage Application

What is the price of Worker’s Compensation insurance?

We are sorry, we haven’t posted an answer to this question yet. Ask us now and we will respond and post the answer in one business day.

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I work for a lawn service company. Does my employer have to carry workmans comp for me?

The requirement to purchase Florida Workers Compensation Insurance coverage depends on several factors. Please follow this link to see the information page on the Florida Department of Financial Services website.

Is insurance for Worker’s Compensation required in Florida?

In the State of Florida in accordance with the Statutes businesses do not have to have Workers Compensation until it has more than 3 employees. This is true for all industries except for construction. Owners may exempt themselves with the following form State Election of Coverage Application.

You should take into consideration that although you are not require to have Workers Compensation, your business is still responsible for any accident or employment disease / illness that an employee may incur.

We are a drywall business with less than 3 employees do we have to have workers comp?

Assuming that your business is in the state of Florida, yes a drywall business would be required to have Workers Compensation coverage from the first employee. Drywall is considered a construction classification.

If you fail to make payments and your policy is canceled, it will be hard to get workers comp again?

Unfortunately, YES!!! If you have current coverage do everything you can to keep it in place because it can be very difficult especially for construction class policies to be purchased if there is a lapse in coverage. You may be able to change insurance companies without a lapse but once there is a lapse it’s an automatic decline for many insurance companies.

I work in commercial construction. Can I include a contractor I hire with a 1099 on my workers comp insurance policy? A 1099 employee will have coverage under my policy without getting workers comp and liability insurance on their own. I want to expand my business but can’t afford to have workers as full time employees.

It may be very difficult to find coverage. The laws that govern Workers Compensation policies are written to be very broad and generally favor the injured individual, as they go up the ladder looking for coverage (e.g. employee of subcontractor gets hurt, goes to his boss who does not have the coverage in place, so then the subcontractors employee goes to the general contractors policy looking for coverage).

Most private insurance companies don’t want to write businesses with more than 10% subcontractors and want those subcontractors to be insured. The reason is simply claims. A 1099 Employee is not really an employee at all, but seen as an independent contractor. The only individuals/corporations receiving a 1099 should be independent contractors and they cannot be supervised (that is one of the tenants of being an independent contractor). Claims experience has shown that uninsured independent contractors create complicated and expensive claims and so insurance companies avoid them as much as possible.

If you would like to discuss the specifics of your situation feel free to contact our office.

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My dad has a business where some fiberglass work and carpentry work is done we have 2 guys that come and work with us and they get a 1099. Do we have to have workers comp? We do have liability insurance Thanks, being harassed from the owner of the whole property who allows others on their property with just liability.

I’m not sure I fully understand your question but I will attempt to answer it assuming that by property owner you mean the owner of a location where you are doing some work for a client and by “have to have workers comp” you mean the statutory requirements to purchase the coverage. The statutory requirements only discuss when a business must by workers compensation NOT when a business becomes liable for its employees (or subcontractors). A business is ALWAYS liable for its employees (or subcontractors) regardless of the requirement to buy the coverage. E.g. a retail store has one owner and two sales reps, though they are not required by law to carrier workers compensation (non-construction business must carry the coverage with 4 or more owners/employees) the owner of the store would still be liable if a stock shelf fell and hurt one of the sales reps. This is why some property owners require that anyone doing work on their property carry the coverage even if they are not required to.

In any construction business (carpentry would be considered construction) the statutory requirement to purchase coverage is with the first employee. A lot of small businesses believe they can get around this requirement by paying individuals that are performing work with them as 1099. Unfortunately that is not the measure used by the Florida Department of Labor to define an independent contractor. So sometimes these individuals are still considered statutory employees. This means that they are employees as far as the state is concerned but they are being paid as independent contractors. Statutory employees are treated as regular employees in the workers compensation statutes. This is another reason why some property owners require that businesses have the coverage as they don’t want to be responsible for the possibility of statutory employees.

In conclusion, the property owner may ask that you carry the coverage because though you may not be legally required to purchase it, that does not alleviate the possibility of having an accident that would eventually become the responsibility of the property owner if there is no coverage in place.

Will be starting business in Florida. Researching W/C find that each county in Florida requires that contractor register and that they be named as “certificate holder”. Does this mean a separate policy for each county or is there one policy with multiple counties named or all counties named?

Certificate Holder is the name of the person or entity that the Certificate of Liability Insurance is made out to. This does not confer any rights or coverage to the person or entity to whom it is made out. Basically a Certificate of Liability Insurance is an informal summary of the coverages on your policy. Most municipalities (not only the counties) require that you provide proof of both Liability and Workers Compensation insurance in order to obtain permits and/or a license. A workers compensation policy is written on a business as a whole and Certificates of Liability Insurance can be provided as many times as needed to any number of Certificate Holders as needed throughout the policy period.

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How much worker comp is required in the state of Florida for a restaurant?

Workers Compensation in Florida is written as Statutory Limits with no real limit listed on the policy. There is a separate part of the policy called Employers Liability that is written with minimum limits of $100,000 each Accident, $500,000 Disease Policy Limit, $100,000 Disease Each Employee. The Employers Liability is for rare occurrences where the Workers Compensation Statutes may not apply directly and liability coverage is needed.

In Florida, for non-construction businesses, you are required to carry workers compensation coverage when a business has 4 or more employees (officers/owners are considered employees) or statutory employees (individuals not paid as employees but qualify as employees under the workers compensation statutes).

I work for myself how do I get a quote?

The information needed for getting a quote would depend on what type of work that you do. You can insurance yourself as an individual, but you’re still looked at as a business for the insurance purposes. Please visit our “Free Quote Page” and choose the type of business you have and complete the online form so that we can start working on a quote for you.

Which industries often carry Workers Compensation insurance?

Industries that commonly carry Workers Compensation insurance include but are not limited to;

Can you provide insurance anywhere in the state?

We have helped customers all across the state of Florida. Below are some of the cities we have done business in.

Do you work in any other states?

YES!!! We also can help you with worker’s compensation insurance in Florida. For more information visit our Texas Workers Compensation page.