How Much Does Workers’ Comp Cost in New York?

Most small New York employers pay somewhere between $0.75 and $2.50 per $100 of payroll, though the real number depends entirely on your industry classification. A restaurant kitchen, a roofing crew, and a bookkeeping office can all have completely different rates per $100 of payroll — sometimes 10x apart — because New York prices workers’ comp by class code, not by business size.

The short version of the math: (Payroll ÷ 100) × Class Rate × Experience Modifier = Manual Premium, and then the state’s annual assessment is layered on top. We break down every piece of that formula below, and you can plug in your own numbers using the calculator on this page.

Try the Calculator

Enter your estimated annual payroll and select your industry class to get a ballpark premium range. This tool uses current NYCIRB loss-cost data and is meant for planning purposes — your actual bound premium will depend on your experience mod, claims history, and the carrier’s own pricing tier.

How New York Calculates Your Workers’ Comp Premium

New York is a NYCIRB state — the New York Compensation Insurance Rating Board files loss costs for every class code, and carriers apply their own expense factor (called a “loss cost multiplier”) on top of that filed loss cost to arrive at their rate. That’s why two carriers quoting the same business, same payroll, same class code, can still land on different premiums.

The Core Formula

1. Classify the business. Every employee’s duties get mapped to a class code (for example, restaurants generally fall under a food-service code, while a roofing crew falls under a much higher-rated construction code). Payroll gets split across codes when a business has employees doing meaningfully different work.
2. Calculate manual premium. Annual payroll for that class is divided by 100 and multiplied by the filed rate per $100 of payroll for that code.
3. Apply the experience modifier (e-mod). Once a business has enough payroll and claims history (typically after about three years), NYCIRB calculates an experience modifier that compares actual claims to what’s expected for a business of that size and class. An e-mod of 1.00 is average; below 1.00 lowers premium, above 1.00 raises it.
4. Layer on the state assessment. New York adds an annual assessment on top of standard premium to fund the Workers’ Compensation Board’s operations. For calendar year 2026, that assessment is 7.0% of standard premium.
5. Apply any credits, debits, or minimum premium. Schedule rating credits/debits, drug-testing or safety-program credits, and carrier minimum premiums can move the final number in either direction.

A Simplified Example

Say a Queens contracting business has $200,000 in annual payroll under a class code rated at $8.00 per $100 of payroll, with an e-mod of 0.95:

• Manual premium: ($200,000 ÷ 100) × $8.00 = $16,000
• After e-mod: $16,000 × 0.95 = $15,200
• Plus 2026 state assessment (7.0%): $15,200 × 1.07 ≈ $16,264

That’s the standard premium before any carrier-specific credits, payment plan fees, or minimum earned premium provisions. Actual filed rates vary widely by class code — this example uses a round number for illustration, not a specific class code’s actual filed rate.

2026 New York Workers’ Comp Benefit Rates (Why This Matters for Pricing)

Premiums track benefit levels, because higher maximum benefits mean carriers expect to pay more on lost-time claims. For injuries occurring July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, New York’s maximum weekly indemnity benefit is $1,281.50, and the minimum weekly benefit is $384.45. The maximum is set at two-thirds of the New York State Average Weekly Wage from the prior year ($1,922.25 for 2025), and both figures are indexed to rise most years — which is part of why NY loss costs and premiums have trended upward over the past several renewal cycles.

For context, the maximum weekly rate has climbed from $1,063.05 (2021–2022) to $1,281.50 (2026–2027) — roughly a 21% increase in five years.

What Actually Moves Your Premium in NY

• Class code accuracy. Misclassified payroll is one of the most common (and most expensive) mistakes we see. A business coded under a higher-rated operation than it actually performs overpays every year until it’s corrected.
• Payroll level. Premium scales directly with payroll, but overtime pay is typically included at straight-time value only (the premium portion of overtime is usually excluded) — make sure your payroll reporting reflects that correctly.
• Experience modifier. Claims frequency matters more than claims severity in most e-mod calculations. A few small, frequent claims can hurt your mod more than one large claim.
• Owner and officer payroll treatment. New York applies minimum and maximum payroll thresholds for included executive officers and sole proprietors/partners who elect coverage — actual payroll below or above those thresholds gets adjusted to the applicable floor or ceiling for rating purposes. These thresholds change annually, so we confirm current figures at quote time rather than relying on last year’s numbers.
• Claims history and open reserves. Open claims with high reserves can affect pricing even before they close, since reserves are what feed the experience mod calculation.
• Carrier appetite. Some carriers specialize in (and price more competitively for) specific verticals — contractors, restaurants, healthcare, trucking — while others avoid them. This is where an independent broker with market access matters.

Typical Rate Bands by Industry We Place

These are general positioning bands based on the classes we place most often — not quotes, and not a substitute for your filed class code rate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Get an Exact Quote

Rate estimates are a starting point — the only way to know your real number is to run your actual payroll and class codes across our carrier markets. Contact Weinsurexyz for a workers’ comp quote tailored to your New York business.