WCRates

WCIRB: Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California

Last verified: 2026-08-06 · Reviewed against the bureau's official filings and California rating law — how we verify

Bureau Overview

State served

California

Rate-making model

Advisory pure premium · open rating

Current effective date

2025-09-01

Official site

www.wcirb.com

The Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California (WCIRB) is the state's licensed statistical and rating organization for workers' compensation. It is a private, non-profit association of the insurers licensed to write the line in California and operates under the oversight of the California Department of Insurance (CDI). Where NCCI is the advisory bureau across most of the country, the WCIRB serves California alone — and California's system diverges from the NCCI model in ways that change how a business is both classified and priced.

California has used an "open rating" system since 1995, so the WCIRB does not set the rate any carrier charges. It collects loss and payroll data from all insurers and files advisory pure premium rates — a pure loss cost per $100 of payroll for each classification — with the Insurance Commissioner. Individual carriers then file their own rates, which can sit above or below the WCIRB benchmark depending on their expenses, target profit, and underwriting appetite. That is why two California insurers can quote very different premiums for the same class code: the advisory pure premium rate is a shared benchmark, not a mandatory price.

The September 1, 2026 WCIRB advisory pure premium rate is a statewide loss-cost benchmark, not the price an insurer must charge: on July 10, 2026, the Insurance Commissioner approved rates averaging $1.65 per $100 of payroll, 6.6% above the approved September 1, 2025 average, for new and renewal policies incepting on or after September 1. The WCIRB had proposed a 10.4% increase; the approved average is lower because the Commissioner used different loss-development and trend assumptions. Individual classification changes vary around that statewide average.

WCIRB Lookup Tools: Class Code Search vs. Coverage Search

Use the free public WCIRB Classification Search when you need a California class code or phraseology. It searches 693 classifications by keyword or code and shows the current phraseology, footnotes, related USRP rules, approved pure premium rates, and prior versions. This is the right WCIRB class code lookup for deciding whether a description such as roofing, clerical work, or restaurant operations fits a California classification; it does not identify which insurer covered a specific employer.

Use WCIRB Coverage Research for the different question, "Which insurer wrote this employer's California workers' comp policy?" WCIRB directs the public to a free Coverage Inquiry search for a named employer and a specific date within the last five years. Detailed or older research has eligibility rules and may carry a fee, while injured workers with a pending claim can use the bureau's injured-worker coverage request form without charge.

WCIRB Connect is the authenticated portal, not the public class-code or coverage lookup. Licensed agents and brokers can use it to retrieve X-Mod and eligibility information, WCIRB-assigned classifications, 10-year risk summaries, ratesheets, and inspection reports; some policyholder documents require authorization. Employers looking only for a class description should start with Classification Search rather than a Connect login.

California's Standard Classification System (not NCCI codes)

California does not use NCCI class codes. The WCIRB maintains its own Standard Classification System of roughly 700 classifications, published in the California Workers' Compensation Uniform Statistical Reporting Plan—1995, which is part of the California Code of Regulations and approved by the Insurance Commissioner. Insurers must use these standard classifications for statistical reporting, so a "WCIRB class code search" returns California-specific classifications that do not always map one-to-one onto the four-digit NCCI codes used elsewhere. When comparing a California rate against another state, match the work to the correct California classification rather than assuming an NCCI number carries over.

The WCIRB also administers California's experience rating plan, calculating the experience modification (X-Mod) that raises or lowers an eligible employer's premium based on its own loss history relative to the class average. For the modeled per-class benchmarks and the market context behind the current advisory filing, see the California workers' compensation rates hub.

Sources

Frequently Asked Questions

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