Commercial InsuranceCost

What US businesses pay for insurance, and why

Try a coverage (“general liability”), a business (“roofer”), a state or a class code (“8810”).

Menu navigation

Massachusetts business insurance: requirements and costs

Massachusetts has no state fund and no loss-cost system: the rating bureau, WCRIBMA, files full workers' comp rates for member and subscriber insurers, and the Commissioner of Insurance must approve them before they take effect.⁠4⁠8 Regulators cut rates 14.6% on July 1, 2024 and rejected a 7.1% increase for July 1, 2025.⁠5⁠6 The duty to insure starts with the first employee.⁠1 Auto liability minimums rose to 25/50/30 on policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2025.⁠10⁠11

Checked against 15 sources Last reviewed How we check figures

Massachusetts at a glance

Workers’ comp required1+ employees; every employer, no minimum headcount
Where employers buy itPrivate insurers
Rates set byWorkers' Compensation Rating and Inspection Bureau of Massachusetts
Employer comp cost, 2023$0.65 per $100 of covered wages (US $0.98)
Comp rate index, 2024$0.97, ranked 31 of 51 (1 = most expensive)
Employer health premium, 2025$10,436 single, $29,619 family (average total premium)
Auto liability minimum25/50/30
Payroll insurance programsPaid Family and Medical Leave (PFML)

In most states a bureau files loss costs and each insurer adds its own expenses. Massachusetts works differently. Under M.G.L. c. 152, s. 53A, an insurer writing comp either files its classifications and premiums with the Commissioner or authorizes a rating organization, here WCRIBMA, to file for it. Filings are due at least every two years. The Commissioner holds a hearing within 60 days to decide whether the rates are excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory and within a range of reasonableness, and a filing is deemed approved if the Commissioner does not act within six months.⁠4 If rates already in effect look excessive, the Commissioner must order a specific decrease even when no one has asked for one.⁠4 Price competition is narrow: an insurer can apply for a percentage decrease from the approved rates that is uniform within each classification, and the Commissioner grants it unless the result would be inadequate or unfairly discriminatory.⁠4 The state's assigned-risk pool is administered by WCRIBMA.⁠8 Employers can also insure through a licensed self-insurance group or, after DIA licensing with a deposit or bond of at least $20,000 and reinsurance, self-insure individually.⁠1

Recent decisions have all pushed rates down or held them flat. The Division of Insurance reported a 14.6% average decrease effective July 1, 2024, the fifth consecutive decrease.⁠6 On May 15, 2025 the Commissioner rejected WCRIBMA's proposed 7.1% increase for July 1, 2025.⁠5 That outcome is now being reopened. Insurance Journal reported on July 7, 2026 that the Supreme Judicial Court upheld the Commissioner's power to reject the bureau's proposals but returned the 2024 and 2025 decisions to the Division because it did not explain how it reached 14.6% or its treatment of class code 9033, and that WCRIBMA had made no rate filing for 2026.⁠7 The next filing and the Division's explanation on remand are the events that could move rates. Official cost data show a low-cost state. NASI estimates Massachusetts employers spent $0.65 per $100 of covered wages in 2023 against $0.98 nationally (about two-thirds of the national figure), down from $0.70 in 2019, a 6.7% drop by our calculation against 16% nationally.⁠12 Oregon's ranking, built from manual rates in effect January 1, 2024, puts Massachusetts 31st of 51 at an index of $0.97 per $100 of payroll, 89% of the Georgia median of $1.09, but far below neighbors New York ($1.98, third) and Connecticut ($1.48, sixth).⁠13 Health coverage is the larger pressure on small firms: AHRQ's 2025 survey found 48.6% of Massachusetts private establishments in firms under 50 employees offered insurance, against 32.1% nationally, at an average single premium of $9,965 against $9,034, about 10% higher by our calculation.⁠14

For an employer, three Massachusetts rules matter beyond the comp rate itself. Coverage is mandatory for every employer, with no minimum headcount, and the stop-work order is immediate.⁠1⁠3 Paid Family and Medical Leave contributions are a separate payroll cost in 2026.⁠9 And the auto minimums for 2025 and later are higher than before, with $8,000 of personal injury protection required alongside liability.⁠10⁠11 Because the 2024 and 2025 decisions are on remand, check that a renewal quote states the rate filing and effective date it is based on.⁠7

Workers’ compensation in Massachusetts

Every employer must provide for payment of compensation to its employees by insurance with an insurer, membership in a workers' compensation self-insurance group, or a DIA self-insurer license.⁠1 An employee is anyone in the service of another under a contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, with a few statutory exceptions.⁠2

Who is exempt

  • Corporate officers or directors who own at least 25% of the stock may opt out, but only by giving the DIA commissioner a written waiver of their rights under the chapter
  • Employers of seasonal, casual or part-time domestic servants (under 16 hours a week) may choose whether to cover them
  • Sole proprietors and partnerships are not covered unless they elect it, and may elect coverage by buying insurance
  • Masters and seamen on vessels in interstate or foreign commerce, professional athletes whose contracts pay wages during disability, commission-only real estate salespersons, qualifying direct sellers and lease-taxi operators are excluded from the definition of employee

Buying coverage and who sets the rates

Employers buy from a licensed insurer, join a certified workers' compensation self-insurance group, or obtain an annual self-insurer license from the DIA.⁠1 There is no state fund. The assigned-risk pool is administered by WCRIBMA.⁠8 Each insurer must offer optional deductibles, with the amounts and the premium reductions set by the Commissioner of Insurance.⁠1

Latest rate decision (1 Jul 2025): On May 15, 2025 the Commissioner of Insurance rejected WCRIBMA's proposed 7.1% increase for policies beginning July 1, 2025, following a 14.6% average decrease effective July 1, 2024. Insurance Journal reported on July 7, 2026 that the Supreme Judicial Court returned both decisions to the Commissioner for a fuller explanation (the opinion itself could not be opened); the court's remand and any new filing could change rates. Official notice.

An employer can obtain an annual DIA license as a self-insurer by keeping at least $20,000 in securities on deposit with the state treasurer or furnishing a bond of at least $20,000, and must arrange reinsurance of at least $500,000 satisfactory to the department. Self-insurance groups are certified under sections 25E to 25U.⁠1

Penalties for going without

The DIA serves a stop-work order that halts all business operations at the site and takes effect immediately unless the employer shows it has insurance and pays $100 for each day it was out of compliance, counting the service date as day one. If a timely appeal fails after a hearing, the rate is $250 a day.⁠3 By our calculation, 30 days out of compliance is $3,000 at the first rate or $7,500 at the second. Failing to insure is also punishable by a fine of up to $1,500, up to one year in prison, or both, and each later notice ignored is a further violation.⁠3

What Massachusetts employers pay

Employer workers’ compensation costs per $100 of covered wages, 2019–2023
YearMassachusettsUnited States
2019$0.70$1.17
2020$0.65$1.08
2021$0.61$1.01
2022$0.64$1.00
2023$0.65$0.98

Employer cost per $100 of covered wages: premiums paid by insured employers plus benefits and administrative costs of self-insured employers, divided by the wages of workers covered by workers’ compensation. The United States figure is NASI’s national total, which includes federal programs. Source: National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI), published 11 Aug 2026.

Oregon’s biennial comparison of workers’ comp rates puts Massachusetts’s index for rates in effect on 1 January 2024 at $0.97 per $100 of payroll, 11% below the national median of $1.09 (rank 31 of 51, where 1 is the most expensive). The index prices the same 50 risk classes, weighted by Oregon payroll, in every state, so it compares rate levels rather than what employers actually pay. Compare every state.

Disability and paid leave insurance

Massachusetts runs a payroll-funded program that employers must register for, fund or insure on top of workers’ compensation.

Massachusetts disability and paid leave programs, 2026
Program2026 contributionEmployer’s part
Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML)0.88% of eligible wages in 2026 for employers with 25 or more covered individuals (0.70% medical, 0.18% family); 0.46% for employers with fewer than 25.⁠9With 25 or more covered individuals, the employer must pay at least 60% of the medical portion (0.42% of wages) and may withhold up to 40% of it (0.28%) plus up to 100% of the family portion (0.18%) from employees. Under 25 covered individuals, there is no employer share and the 0.46% can be withheld in full.⁠9

Contributions are capped by the Social Security taxable maximum. Chapter 101 of the Acts of 2026 moves the employer share from the medical to the family portion from January 1, 2027.⁠9

Employer health insurance in Massachusetts

Average annual premium per enrolled employee at private-sector employers, 2025
MeasureMassachusettsFirms under 50United States
Single coverage, total premium$10,436$9,965$9,025
Family coverage, total premium$29,619$27,129$26,281
Employee share, single$2,038–$1,817
Employers offering coverage62.7%48.6%49.2%

Average total annual premium per enrolled employee at private-sector establishments that offer health insurance; the offer rate is the share of establishments offering coverage. Small firms have fewer than 50 employees. Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, 2025 survey year. All states.

Commercial auto in Massachusetts

Every vehicle registered in Massachusetts, including business vehicles, must carry at least 25/50/30 in liability limits (bodily injury per person / per accident / property damage, in thousands of dollars). Official source.

Policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2025 must provide bodily injury liability of at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident and property damage liability of at least $30,000 per accident.⁠10⁠11 Massachusetts is also a PIP state: personal injury protection of at least $8,000 per person is part of the compulsory coverage.⁠10

Trucks and buses used in interstate commerce must also meet federal minimums of $750,000 to $5 million: see commercial auto minimums and what commercial auto costs.

Other Massachusetts rules that affect insurance costs

Deductible options on comp policies

The Commissioner of Insurance must require every comp insurer to offer deductibles, including reasonable small ones, as part of the policy or an endorsement. The insurer pays the claim first, then bills the employer for the deductible, and unpaid deductibles are treated like unpaid premium under the policy. The Commissioner sets the premium reductions.⁠1

Sole proprietors and LLC members who elect coverage

A sole proprietor or partnership may elect to be an employee by buying insurance.⁠2 WCRIBMA says that from October 1, 2026 the premium basis for such electing owners is $73,100, and executive officer payroll is limited to between $16,640 and $83,200 a year (a weekly minimum of $320 and maximum of $1,600, tied to the state average weekly wage).⁠15

PFML contributions reshuffle in 2027

The 0.88% PFML total does not change on DFML's page for 2027, but employers with 25 or more covered individuals will pay 60% of the family leave contribution instead of the medical one, and may withhold up to 100% of the medical portion (0.18%).⁠9

Massachusetts compared with its neighbors

Workers’ comp and health insurance costs, Massachusetts and neighboring states
Massachusetts$0.65$0.97$10,436
Connecticut$0.92$1.48$9,987
New Hampshire$0.76$1.22$9,502
New York$1.12$1.98$10,913
Rhode Island$0.91$1.38$9,388
Vermont$1.24$1.60$10,004

Sources

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15

National figures: NASI (employer comp costs), Oregon DCBS (rate index), AHRQ MEPS-IC (health premiums).

Spotted an outdated figure? Report an error

Other states

ALAKAZARCACOCTDEDCFLGAHIIDILINIAKSKYLAMEMDMAMIMNMSMOMTNENVNHNJNMNYNCNDOHOKORPARISCSDTNTXUTVTVAWAWVWIWY