Workers' Compensation Rates in Florida (2026)

State Overview

Florida requires workers' comp for non-construction employers with four or more employees, and construction employers with one or more employees. Rates have been declining in recent years.

Understanding Florida Workers' Comp Rates

Florida is an NCCI state — the National Council on Compensation Insurance files annual rate recommendations with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR), and the OIR reviews and approves the filing before insurers can write business at the new rates. The Florida Division of Workers' Compensation, inside the Department of Financial Services, is a separate agency: it administers the Reemployment Assistance and exemption registry, enforces coverage compliance, and handles claim disputes. NCCI sets the class codes and the loss costs; OIR approves them; the DWC enforces who must carry coverage.

On January 1, 2026, an NCCI-filed average voluntary-market rate decrease of 6.9% took effect in Florida — approved by Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky on November 17, 2025 and the ninth consecutive year of decreases, driven by improving statewide loss experience, lower indemnity claim frequency, and continued downward pressure on construction medical costs. The 6.9% is an average across all class codes; individual class codes shifted by more or less than that. It also is not what you actually pay — Florida insurers can deviate from filed loss costs through their own Loss Cost Multiplier (LCM), and your renewal premium also reflects your experience modification factor and any schedule rating credits or debits.

The next change is proposed, not yet approved. NCCI has asked the Office of Insurance Regulation for an overall average 7.4% decrease in voluntary-market rate levels for new and renewal policies, proposed effective January 1, 2027. OIR holds the public rate hearing on October 27, 2026 and keeps the comment record open until November 10, 2026, so the January 1, 2026 rates remain the ones in force until OIR rules and the new rates take effect.

How to find a Florida workers' comp class code from a job description

There is no Florida workers' comp class code for a job title. NCCI files the classifications used in Florida, and the NCCI rules are what an auditor applies, and what gets classified is the employer's business — not the separate employments, occupations or operations inside it. "Machinist", "CNC operator", "general construction labor" and "data entry" are therefore work that sits inside whichever classification describes the business, not values you can look up on their own.

NCCI publishes Florida's classifications in the NCCI Basic Manual, including the Florida State Special Audit Rules pages the Office of Insurance Regulation has incorporated by reference (the pages the Office approved for use effective 1/24 and incorporated by reference in Rule 69O-189.003(2)(b)2., F.A.C. (rule effective March 9, 2025) — Florida is a prior-approval state, so no classification, rule, rate or rating plan may be used until the Office has affirmatively approved the filing (Rule 69O-189.016(2), F.A.C.; § 627.101(2), Fla. Stat.), and nothing takes effect on a rolling edition date of NCCI's own). To confirm the classification for a specific business, use the Office of Insurance Regulation's own workers' compensation rules, Chapter 69O-189, F.A.C., which name the approved NCCI Basic Manual pages and the two Tallahassee offices where the manual itself can be read, published by the Florida Department of State, which publishes the Florida Administrative Code rather than by NCCI — that is the filed authority for Florida, and a code quoted from another state's manual is not. Florida puts a clock on both sides of the argument. Section 627.291(1), Fla. Stat., makes every rating organization and every insurer that makes its own rates furnish an affected insured — or its authorized representative — all pertinent information as to the rate made for it, within a reasonable time of a written request and on payment of a reasonable charge. Section 627.291(2) then requires that organization or insurer to provide a means inside Florida for anyone aggrieved by the application of its rating system to be heard, in person or by a representative, on written request to review how the system was applied to their insurance; if the request is neither granted nor rejected within thirty days the applicant may proceed as though it had been rejected, and any party affected by the action taken has thirty days from written notice of it to appeal to the Office of Insurance Regulation, which may affirm or reverse.

Florida is the state where the classification list is not on the internet, and its regulator says so in the rule. Rule 69O-189.003(2)(b)2., F.A.C., incorporates the NCCI Basic Manual pages carrying Florida's State Special Audit Rules and then records that the Office "has determined that posting these incorporated materials would be a violation of federal copyright law" — so the manual has to be bought from NCCI in Boca Raton or read during business hours at the Office in the Larson Building, 200 East Gaines Street, or at the Department of State, The Capitol, 400 S. Monroe Street, Room 701, both in Tallahassee. Two more things a multi-state employer will not expect. Under § 627.211(1), Fla. Stat., every member or subscriber of a rating organization must adhere to the filings made on its behalf, and a carrier that wants to charge differently has to apply in writing for a uniform deviation the Office approves one year at a time (§ 627.211(4)) — so the classification, not the carrier, is doing nearly all of the pricing work here. And § 627.091(6) drags the ratemaking itself into the open: whenever the rating organization's committee meets on Florida workers' compensation rates it must meet in Florida, subject to the Sunshine Law, with three weeks' notice to the Office and fourteen days' public notice in the Florida Administrative Register.

the Office of Insurance Regulation's own workers' compensation rules, Chapter 69O-189, F.A.C., which name the approved NCCI Basic Manual pages and the two Tallahassee offices where the manual itself can be read (official Florida lookup)

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Related Guides for Florida Employers

• The Complete Guide to Workers' Comp Costs in 2026

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• Compare Workers' Comp Rates by State

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• Workers' Comp Premium Calculator

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• Workers' Comp Class Codes Explained

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• NCCI Class Code Lookup & Directory

  Search workers' comp class codes by keyword to find the four-digit NCCI (or Florida bureau) code for your business — then see how it is rated above.

• Experience Modification Rate (EMR) Explained

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• 5 Proven Ways to Lower Your Workers' Comp Premium

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• How Rates Are Calculated: NCCI vs Independent States

  Whether Florida uses NCCI or an independent bureau — and why the difference changes how your premium is set.