Workers' Comp Rate for Electrical Wiring - Within Buildings in New York (Class Code 5190)
Last verified: 2026-10-05
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Get Your QuoteFiled Figures for Class Code 5190 in the States That Publish Them
Copied from each state's own regulator or rating bureau filing, per $100 of payroll. A loss cost is what the filing calls it — your insurer multiplies it by its own loss cost multiplier; a rate is a manual rate. States not listed publish no per-class figure this site has transcribed.
Where code 5190 sits among all classes, judged only from filed tables: a class percentile of 55 (0 = the cheapest class, 100 = the most expensive) across the 2 filings that list it.
Compare: New York and States with a Similar Cost Index
Cost index 1.00 = the median of the 47 rated states. It is a relative position, not a price, and it does not vary by class code.
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Related Class Codes in New York
About Class Code 5190: Scope, Inclusions, and Common Misclassifications
NCCI Class Code 5190 - officially phrased "Electrical Wiring - Within Buildings" - is the workers' compensation classification for electrical contractors installing, repairing, or completing wiring systems inside building structures. It is the code buyers usually mean when they search for "5190 workers comp code," "class code 5190," or electrician workers' comp rates. The exposure is construction electrical work: running power and lighting circuits, conduit, armored cable, branch wiring, switches, plugs, panels, fixtures, and related within-building wiring work, with drivers included in the phraseology.
The important boundary is that 5190 is not a general technology, equipment-service, utility-line, or low-risk clerical code. It is a construction classification for electricians working in buildings. This page shows a filed 5190 figure only for the states that publish one and ranks every other state with a relative cost index; neither is a binding quote, and actual premium changes with payroll, carrier multiplier, experience modification, schedule credits, minimum premium, and state-specific manual rules.
What's Included Under Class Code 5190
Public NCCI-scope summaries describe 5190 as the installation of electrical wiring systems within buildings, with no restriction on the wiring system's electrical capacity. The code applies to power circuitry as well as lighting wiring, and the wiring can be hung on insulators or installed in rigid conduit, flexible conduit, armored cable, or similar raceway/cable methods. In plain English: this is the interior electrical contractor class.
Typical 5190 payroll includes electricians and helpers running branch circuits, interior power and lighting wiring, panels, switches, outlets, fuses, plugs, fixtures, and similar building-wiring work for residential, commercial, and light industrial structures. New York's public Classification Digest carries the parallel phraseology "Electrical Wiring - Within Buildings - All Operations to Completion & Drivers," which is a useful reminder that the code follows the electrical wiring operation through completion rather than only the first rough-in phase.
When Electrical Work Is NOT 5190
Do not use 5190 just because a job involves electricity. Office-machine and computer-hardware service belongs in 5191 office machine installation, inspection, adjustment or repair when the work is servicing the machine rather than wiring the building. HVAC installation or service can fall under an HVAC class such as 5537 in states that adopted that classification. Plumbing, sprinkler, elevator, utility-line, communications-line, alarm, appliance, sign, and equipment-installation operations may also have separate state-specific codes.
The practical test is what the employee is wiring and where. Wiring the building's power or lighting system points toward 5190. Installing or servicing a machine that plugs into the building, pulling outside utility lines, setting communication infrastructure, or doing a specialty trade that happens to include some wiring should be checked against that specialty classification before payroll is assigned to 5190.
Audit Records for Electrical Contractors
The audit file that supports 5190 should separate interior electrical payroll from any other trade or service work. Keep job-cost reports, crew assignments, work orders, subcontract records, service tickets, and payroll splits that show which hours were building-wiring work and which hours belonged to HVAC, alarm, low-voltage, appliance service, utility-line, shop, clerical, sales, or driver-only duties. A single "electrician" job title is weaker than records showing the actual operation performed.
Independent-bureau states matter. California, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Michigan, North Carolina, and other independent systems may use different phraseology, split rules, wage thresholds, loss costs, or class numbers for related electrical work. For example, New York's filed 5190 loss cost is 2.847 per $100 of payroll for policies effective on or after October 1, 2026 — down 15.7% from the 3.379 that the October 1, 2025 filing carried, against a 21.9% statewide average cut, so 5190 moved markedly less than the state as a whole (hazard group F). This page shows a filed 5190 figure only for the states that publish one; other states are ranked with a relative cost index, not a filed rate. Multi-state contractors should verify the governing state bureau before treating the national 5190 label as the final rating answer.
Sources
- NYCIRB Bulletin R.C. 2659 (July 15, 2026), Exhibit A — New York filed loss cost for class 5190 is 2.847 per $100 of payroll effective October 1, 2026, against 3.379 under the October 1, 2025 filing (−15.7%); DFS approved a 21.9% decrease in the overall loss cost level (retrieved 2026-10-05)
- NYCIRB Classification Digest - Class 5190 Phraseology and Description (retrieved 2026-07-04)
- NYCIRB Classification Digest - Class 5190 Dashboard and Current Rating Values (retrieved 2026-07-04)
- New York Workers' Compensation Board - Manual Classification Code table DN0059 (retrieved 2026-07-04)
- Work Comp Associates - Class Code 5190 (NCCI scope summary: building wiring, power circuitry, lighting wiring, conduit and armored cable) (retrieved 2026-07-04)
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