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How much does insurance cost for a painting contractor?

For a painting contractor, workers' comp is priced by the kind of painting. Ohio's state fund charges a base rate of $2.0794 per $100 of payroll for painting NOC (class 5474, from July 1, 2026). Washington charges $3.7129 per hour for exterior painting (class 0504) and $1.8962 for interior painting (class 0521), both 2026 official rates. Wyoming has no painting line in its schedule; painters fall under specialty trades at $2.39 per $100. No insurer in our data publishes a painter-specific general liability price. The nearest published figures are ERGO NEXT's customer averages for contractors, such as $145 a month for carpenters (April 2026).

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Contents9 sections

Key takeaways

  • Painting is not one rate. Washington charges $3.7129 an hour for exterior work and $1.8962 for interior work, so exterior painters cost 1.96 times as much to insure per hour (our calculation, 2026 rates)⁠2.
  • Ohio's painting NOC base rate, $2.0794 per $100 of payroll, is 44.6 times the clerical rate and 1.21 times the rate for carpentry NOC (our calculation from the July 1, 2026 schedule)⁠1.
  • The EPA's lead-safe rule is a federal certification, not an insurance product. Any firm paid to disturb paint in pre-1978 housing or child-occupied facilities must be certified, sole proprietors included, and EPA's 2025 maximum TSCA penalty is $49,772 per violation⁠5⁠6⁠7.
  • California's painting license (C-33) is not among the classifications that must carry workers' comp when there are no employees, but a $25,000 license bond is required. Washington requires $200,000/$50,000 liability for registration⁠9⁠10⁠11.
  • No insurer in our data publishes a painter-specific GL price. Whether lead-dust or fumes claims are covered depends on pollution wording in your own policy, which we have not verified for a standard form.

Quick facts

Ohio painting NOC (5474)$2.0794 per $100 payroll, from July 1, 2026⁠1
Washington exterior painting (0504)$3.7129 per hour worked, 2026⁠2
Washington interior painting (0521)$1.8962 per hour worked, 2026⁠2
Wyoming specialty trades (238000)$2.39 per $100 payroll, 2026; no separate painting line⁠3
Construction comp cost, BLS$1.10 per hour worked, June 2026 (all private industry: $0.43)⁠4
EPA lead-safe firm certificateValid up to 5 years; needed for paid work in pre-1978 housing⁠5⁠6

State-fund base rates are before experience modification. Insurer figures describe each company's own customers.

Painting comp rates depend on where the brush goes

Workers’ comp is priced per class of work, and painting splits into several. In Ohio the class most painters fall under is 5474, “Painting NOC and Shop Operations, Drivers”⁠1. Washington splits the work by location: class 0504 for exterior building and structure painting and class 0521 for interior painting, with separate classes for shop painting (3603) and sign painting (4109)⁠2. Wyoming’s NAICS-based schedule has no painting contractor line in the data we hold⁠3.

Official workers’ compensation base rates for this work in the three state-fund states that publish them
StateClassDescriptionBase rateEffective
Ohio5474PAINTING NOC AND SHOP OPERATIONS, DRIVERS$2.0794 per $1001 Jul 2026
Ohio5403CARPENTRY NOC$1.7131 per $1001 Jul 2026
Washington0504Painting: Building and Structures - Exterior Work$3.7129 per hour1 Jan 2026
Washington0521Painting: Buildings - Interior Work$1.8962 per hour1 Jan 2026
Wyoming238000Specialty Trade Contractors$2.39 per $1001 Jan 2026

Base rates set by the state fund before experience modification. Ohio and Wyoming charge per $100 of payroll; Washington charges per hour worked, and part is withheld from wages. Other states’ insurers file their own rates; see where rates are published.

In context:

  • Ohio. Class 5474 at $2.0794 per $100 of payroll is 44.6 times clerical class 8810 ($0.0466) and 1.21 times carpentry NOC 5403 ($1.7131). These are our calculations from the schedule effective July 1, 2026⁠1. Ohio’s class title bundles shop work and drivers into the same line, so a firm whose painters also drive does not split them out.
  • Washington. Exterior painting (0504) costs $3.7129 for every hour worked in 2026; interior painting (0521) costs $1.8962. The ratio is 1.96 (our calculation). The worker share that may be deducted from wages is $0.60045 an hour for exterior and $0.356 for interior⁠2. Interior and exterior are separate classes at different hourly rates, so an interior-only crew costs less per hour than one that also works outside. Washington charges by hour, not by dollar of payroll, so a higher-paid painter costs the same to insure as an apprentice.
  • Wyoming. The schedule in our data lists specialty trade contractors (238000) at $2.39 per $100 in 2026, with no separate painting and wall covering line⁠3.

In most other states, private insurers file their own rates on top of bureau loss costs. The code is the same but the rate per $100 differs by insurer. See where official rates are published and the class code guide.

What the BLS cost-per-hour figure shows

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a painting-only figure. Its June 2026 Employer Costs for Employee Compensation survey puts construction employers’ workers’ comp at $1.10 per hour worked, 2.6 times the $0.43 average for all private industry (our calculation)⁠4.

Employer cost per hour worked for workers’ compensation and health insurance, June 2026
GroupWorkers’ comp per hourComp, % of total pay and benefitsHealth insurance per hour
All private industry workers$0.430.9%$3.48
Construction$1.102.1%$3.71
Manufacturing$0.491.0%$4.43
Trade, transportation, and utilities$0.541.4%$3.01
Information$0.420.5%$7.37
Financial activities$0.230.3%$5.97
Professional and business services$0.360.6%$4.11
Education and health services$0.300.6%$3.70
Leisure and hospitality$0.271.2%$0.84
Other services (except public administration)$0.350.9%$2.34
Goods-producing$0.731.5%$4.16
Service-providing$0.370.8%$3.34

Average employer cost per employee hour worked for workers' compensation and for health insurance, averaged across all workers in the group, plus workers' compensation as a percent of total compensation. Group averages mix high- and low-risk jobs, so they are not a premium rate for any single business. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), National Compensation Survey, June 2026 (2026 Q2), private industry workers, released 9 Sep 2026.

Worked examples

These are our calculations with stated assumptions and official 2026 rates. They are not quotes.

  1. Ohio, $250,000 of painting payroll

    $250,000 ÷ 100 × $2.0794 = $5,198.50 a year at the base rate⁠1. An experience-rated employer pays its modification times that figure.

  2. Washington, four painters working 1,800 hours each (7,200 hours)

    Exterior: 7,200 × $3.7129 = $26,732.88. Interior only: 7,200 × $1.8962 = $13,652.64. The difference is $13,080.24 a year. Of the exterior total, 7,200 × $0.60045 = $4,323.24 may be deducted from the workers’ wages⁠2.

  3. Wyoming, $250,000 of payroll

    $250,000 ÷ 100 × $2.39 = $5,975 at the specialty trade rate, before any experience factor⁠3.

How the modification is built from your claims is covered in the experience modification rate guide, and how auditors re-check payroll by class in premium audits.

The EPA lead-safe rule: a federal certification, not insurance

The EPA’s Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Rule applies to paid work that disturbs painted surfaces in homes, childcare facilities and preschools built before 1978. EPA states that anyone paid to do it must be certified and their employees trained in lead-safe work practices, and that this includes sole proprietorships⁠5. Whether your methods count as disturbing paint is defined in the rule itself, which we did not review.

What that means for cost:

  • The firm must be certified. A firm applies to EPA electronically with the required fees; the certificate expires no more than 5 years after approval and the firm must be re-certified every 5 years⁠6. EPA reviews the firm’s and principals’ environmental compliance history before approving⁠6. We did not confirm the current fee amounts.
  • Some states run their own program. EPA lists Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin as authorized to operate it, plus a tribal program. A painter in those states certifies with the state, not EPA⁠5.
  • Penalties are federal and large. EPA’s January 8, 2025 inflation table sets the maximum TSCA civil penalty at $49,772 per violation⁠7. EPA says it sets actual amounts case by case. The same $49,772 figure appears in 40 CFR 19.4 as published in the eCFR on October 13, 2026 (last amended January 8, 2025).
  • Insurance does not replace it. The certificate is a compliance requirement. It is not a policy and no insurer issues it.

What the policy covers when lead or fumes are involved

Painters handle solvents, strippers and old lead paint. We did not open an authoritative copy of a standard general liability form, so we cannot say how any policy treats pollution, lead or fumes claims. Ask each insurer for the exclusions and endorsements list in writing and compare it with the work you do in pre-1978 buildings.

General liability: how painters are rated without a published price

None of the insurers and brokers in our data publishes a painter-specific general liability figure. The nearest are for other contracting trades:

Premiums insurers report for this type of business
CoveragePublisherFigurePremiumPublished
General liabilityERGO NEXTAverage (Carpenter)$145/modata updated April 2026
General liabilityERGO NEXTAverage (General contractor)$210/modata updated April 2026
Commercial autoProgressive CommercialMedian (Contractors)$203/mo2025 data (page undated)
Commercial autoProgressive CommercialAverage (Contractors)$260/mo2025 data (page undated)

Insurer- and broker-reported figures from each company’s own customers, as published on its website; not a random sample of all businesses. Figures are rounded as published.

The general liability rows are ERGO NEXT’s monthly averages for its own general contractor and carpenter customers who bought general liability in the prior 12 months, data updated April 2026⁠12. The commercial auto rows are Progressive Commercial’s 2025 new-policy premiums per power unit for contractors, a different coverage⁠13. A painting account is in neither group, so treat them as outside references, not a painter’s price. The general liability guide explains premium bases (payroll for most contracting risks), the audit and the limits contracts ask for.

Two things set a painter’s quote: how much of the work is exterior or at height, and whether you work on occupied homes, rentals or commercial buildings with their own contract insurance terms. Neither can be turned into a figure without your own data.

License rules that touch insurance

Painting is licensed state by state, and many states do not license it at all. The two rules we confirmed at the boards on October 13, 2026:

  • California. The C-33 painting and decorating classification covers surface preparation and the application of paints, textures, stains, varnishes, waterproofing and similar materials⁠8. CSLB lists the classifications that must carry workers’ comp “whether or not they have employees”: C-8, C-20, C-22, C-39 and C-61/D-49. C-33 is not on that list, so a painter with no employees may be able to file an exemption, unless the license is qualified by a Responsible Managing Employee (RME) or the contractor employs anyone subject to California comp law; CSLB suspends a license for lapsed required comp⁠9. The contractor license bond is $25,000 since January 1, 2023⁠10.
  • Washington. Contractor registration requires a surety bond ($15,000 for specialty contractors, $30,000 for general contractors), general liability of $200,000 public liability plus $50,000 property damage or $250,000 combined single limit, with L&I listed as certificate holder⁠11. Whether L&I treats a painting business as a specialty contractor is not stated on that page; confirm with L&I.

Other large states, such as Florida, Texas and Illinois, were not checked for painting-specific rules. See the state hubs and the workers’ comp requirements table for each state’s employee threshold.

Building a painting insurance budget

No published figure gives a painting company’s total cost. To build one you can compare with quotes:

  1. Split payroll or hours by class

    Interior, exterior, shop and office. In Washington the interior and exterior hours have different rates.

  2. Apply the state’s comp rate

    Use the official rate above in Ohio, Washington or Wyoming. Elsewhere ask for the class code, rate and loss-cost multiplier, then your experience modification.

  3. Price GL on the same payroll

    Ask which class and premium base the insurer used and which pollution and lead exclusions apply.

  4. Check the contracts

    Property managers and general contractors set their own insurance limits; read them before you buy.

  5. Add vehicles, ladders and equipment separately

    See commercial auto and inland marine.

The workers’ comp estimator runs the comp arithmetic with official rates, and the premium calculation guide explains each step.

Sources

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