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Missouri business insurance: requirements and costs

Missouri prices workers' comp from NCCI advisory loss costs in an open, use-and-file market with no state fund, and the January 1, 2026 filing raised them 1.3% on average after cuts of 5.3% and 7.5% in the two years before.⁠1⁠2⁠3 Most employers must insure once they have five employees, but construction firms must from the first, and family members count toward the five.⁠4 On top of premium, every policyholder pays a Second Injury Fund surcharge, set at 3% for 2026, the statutory maximum.⁠9⁠10

Checked against 26 sources Last reviewed How we check figures

Missouri at a glance

Workers’ comp required5+ employees (family counted); 1+ in construction
Where employers buy itPrivate insurers
Rates set byNational Council on Compensation Insurance
Employer comp cost, 2023$1.01 per $100 of covered wages (US $0.98)
Comp rate index, 2024$1.31, ranked 16 of 51 (1 = most expensive)
Employer health premium, 2025$8,084 single, $25,520 family (average total premium)
Auto liability minimum25/50/25

There is no state-run or state-chartered comp carrier left in Missouri. The law that created Missouri Employers Mutual as an "independent public corporation" to insure Missouri employers was repealed effective January 1, 2025, and SB 101 (2023) let that company convert to a private mutual insurer.⁠17 Employers buy from any licensed insurer, self-insure individually or as a group with the Division of Workers' Compensation's approval, or, if no insurer will write them, go to the assigned risk pool. The Department of Commerce and Insurance (DCI) oversees the pool, and Travelers Property Casualty Company of America administers it as contract carrier.⁠1⁠7⁠13⁠14 NCCI is the designated advisory organization: insurers must use its uniform classification system and experience rating plan, but in this competitive market they set their own rates and file them with DCI no later than 30 days after they take effect.⁠15⁠16 DCI publishes an online rate guide that compares insurers' filed rates.⁠26

The January 1, 2026 loss costs ended a run of decreases. NCCI filed +1.3%, and DCI recorded the filing as approved on October 30, 2025.⁠3 Its breakdown: +1.2% from loss experience and development, +0.8% from a less negative indemnity trend (-3.0% a year instead of -3.5%), 0.0% from benefit changes and -0.7% from all other items.⁠2 The department's outside actuary judged the filing sound but would have gone further, to +2.0%, mainly because its own loss development factors produced a higher indication.⁠2 By industry group, manufacturing rose 2.9%, office and clerical 2.1%, miscellaneous 1.8%, goods and services 0.4% and contracting 0.3%.⁠1 Some large classes moved more: electrical wiring (5190) +8.3%, clerical office (8810) +6.3%, carpentry (5403) +5.0% and trucking (7219) +3.5%. Parcel delivery (7231) fell 3.6% and auto repair (8391) 2.7%. About 62.6% of statewide premium sits in classes that went up.⁠2 Our calculation: compounding the -7.5% (2024), -5.3% (2025) and +1.3% (2026) changes leaves average loss costs about 11.3% below their 2023 level.⁠2 DCI had not posted a January 1, 2027 filing as of October 13, 2026.

Missouri sits a little above the middle on cost. NASI puts employer comp spending at $1.01 per $100 of covered wages in 2023, against $0.98 nationally, down from $1.10 in 2019 (our calculation: -8.2%).⁠21 Oregon's 2024 ranking, which prices the same 50 classes in every state, put Missouri 16th of 51 with an index of $1.31, 120% of the median state.⁠22 That makes it costlier than six of its eight neighbors, from Iowa ($1.21) and Nebraska ($1.12) down to Arkansas ($0.53, 50th), and close to Illinois ($1.34) and Oklahoma ($1.33).⁠22 Health coverage runs the other way. AHRQ's 2025 survey put Missouri's average single premium at $8,084, about 10% below the $9,025 national figure by our calculation, and workers paid $1,649 of it against $1,817 nationally.⁠23

Several 2025-2026 changes reach Missouri payrolls. The state minimum wage went from $13.75 to $15.00 an hour on January 1, 2026.⁠24 Comp premium is charged per $100 of payroll, so for minimum-wage staff the exposure base grew 9.1% (our calculation) even where the class loss cost stayed flat. HB 567 repealed the paid sick leave law that voters adopted in 2024 (Proposition A), effective August 28, 2025, so Missouri has no statutory paid sick, disability or family leave program employers must fund.⁠25 The supplemental Second Injury Fund surcharge, which the division may set at up to 1% but set at 0% for 2026, loses its statutory authority on December 31, 2026, leaving only the regular surcharge capped at 3%.⁠9⁠10

For a budget, start from your carrier's filed rate for each class, apply your experience mod, then add the surcharges the policy will show. Our example: a policy with $10,000 of premium carries a $300 Second Injury Fund surcharge at the 2026 rate of 3%; the insurer collects it with the premium and may not take a commission on it.⁠9⁠10 If you buy a deductible plan, a separate 1.5% administrative surcharge applies to the premium the deductible credit removed.⁠10⁠12 Employers with more than $250,000 of expiring premium that end up in the assigned risk pool must negotiate a retrospective rating plan acceptable to DCI.⁠13

Workers’ compensation in Missouri

Employers with five or more employees must carry workers' comp, counting employees who are relatives within the third degree. Construction employers who erect, demolish, alter or repair improvements must carry it from the first employee.⁠4⁠6 Smaller and exempt employers may elect coverage by buying a policy.⁠5

Who is exempt

  • Farm labor, domestic servants in a private home (including family chauffeurs) and occasional labor for a private household
  • Qualified real estate agents and direct sellers as defined in 26 U.S.C. 3508
  • Unpaid volunteers of 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(19) organizations, and sports officials or contest workers for interscholastic and amateur youth programs
  • Inmates and patients working only for the state, county or city holding them
  • Corporations whose only employees are no more than two owners may file to withdraw
  • Family members and salaried officers of a family farm corporation
  • Sole proprietors and partners are not covered themselves unless they elect coverage (family employees and LLC members are presumed covered unless they opt out)

Buying coverage and who sets the rates

Employers buy from licensed private insurers, which set their own rates from NCCI advisory loss costs and file them with DCI within 30 days of use.⁠2⁠15 Employers who cannot get coverage go to the assigned risk pool (Missouri Workers' Compensation Insurance Plan), administered by Travelers.⁠14 There is no state fund.⁠17

Latest rate decision (1 Jan 2026): NCCI voluntary market advisory loss costs +1.3% on average for policies effective on or after Jan. 1, 2026 (approved Oct. 30, 2025), after -5.3% in 2025 and -7.5% in 2024. DCI's consulting actuary had indicated +2.0%. Official notice.

Allowed for a single employer or a group of employers that satisfies the Division of Workers' Compensation of its ability to carry the liability (RSMo 287.280).⁠7 Self-insurers pay the Second Injury Fund surcharge too.⁠9

Penalties for going without

Knowingly failing to insure is a class A misdemeanor, plus a state penalty of up to three times the annual premium you would have paid or up to $50,000, whichever is greater; a repeat offense is a class E felony.⁠8 An injured worker of an uninsured employer may sue for damages, and the employer loses the defenses of fellow-servant negligence, assumed risk and the worker's own negligence.⁠7 Providing an invalid certificate of insurance is a class E felony with a fine of up to $10,000 or double the value of the fraud, whichever is greater.⁠8

What Missouri employers pay

Employer workers’ compensation costs per $100 of covered wages, 2019–2023
YearMissouriUnited States
2019$1.10$1.17
2020$1.09$1.08
2021$1.07$1.01
2022$1.02$1.00
2023$1.01$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 Missouri’s index for rates in effect on 1 January 2024 at $1.31 per $100 of payroll, 20% above the national median of $1.09 (rank 16 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.

Employer health insurance in Missouri

Average annual premium per enrolled employee at private-sector employers, 2025
MeasureMissouriFirms under 50United States
Single coverage, total premium$8,084$8,370$9,025
Family coverage, total premium$25,520$23,850$26,281
Employee share, single$1,649–$1,817
Employers offering coverage51.4%31.0%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 Missouri

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

Unchanged in 2025-2026 (the RSMo 303.190 text in force since July 1, 2019). Uninsured motorist coverage must be included at no less than the bodily-injury limits, except that for commercial motor vehicles and employers with fleets of five or more passenger vehicles the insurer need only offer it (RSMo 379.203); no PIP requirement. Interstate motor carriers also need the federal FMCSA minimums.

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 Missouri rules that affect insurance costs

Second Injury Fund and administrative charges

For calendar year 2026 the division set the Second Injury Fund surcharge at 3%, the administrative tax at 1.5%, the administrative surcharge at 1.5% and the supplemental Second Injury Fund surcharge at 0%.⁠10 The fund surcharge is billed to policyholders and self-insurers on net premium and collected with the premium.⁠9 The administrative tax is levied on insurers' net premiums, capped at 2%, and the administrative surcharge applies only to deductible-plan policyholders.⁠11⁠12 The division sets the next year's rates by October 31.⁠9

General contractors answer for uninsured subs

On construction work, the independent contractor is deemed the employer of its subcontractors' employees on the site, and each contractor up the chain is secondarily liable for comp benefits unless the injured worker was insured by the immediate or an intermediate employer.⁠18 Under the statute, a sub's own coverage is what keeps that liability off the contractors above it.⁠18

Loss costs now carry three decimals

From the January 1, 2026 filing, NCCI extended Missouri loss costs and expected loss rates from two to three decimal places to reduce rounding for classes with small loss costs; the department's actuary agreed.⁠2

Missouri compared with its neighbors

Workers’ comp and health insurance costs, Missouri and neighboring states
Missouri$1.01$1.31$8,084
Iowa$1.02$1.21$8,620
Illinois$0.77$1.34$9,724
Kentucky$0.73$0.76$8,936
Tennessee$0.60$0.80$8,667
Arkansas$0.57$0.53$7,804
Oklahoma$0.91$1.33$8,124
Kansas$0.84$0.91$8,657
Nebraska$0.89$1.12$8,907

Sources

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

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Other states

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