Workers' Comp Rate for Painting NOC & Shop Operations, Drivers in New York (Class Code 5474)
Last verified: 2026-05-21
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Get Your QuoteFiled Figures for Class Code 5474 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 5474 sits among all classes, judged only from filed tables: a class percentile of 90 (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 5474: Scope, Inclusions, and Common Misclassifications
Workers' comp class code 5474 is the painting contractor classification buyers usually mean when they search for "painting class code workers comp" or "workers comp code 5474." It is a NOC code: use it for painting, decorating, and related surface-preparation work only after checking whether a more specific construction, bridge, ship, tank, wallpaper, glazing, drywall, or shop-only classification controls.
The practical audit question is not just whether the business applies paint. It is where the work happens, what structure is being painted, whether ladders or scaffolds are part of the job, and whether any non-painting trade work is more than incidental. A house-painting contractor and a commercial painting contractor can both fit 5474, but bridge painting, ship hull work, high metal structures, auto-body painting, and substantial drywall or construction work can be assigned elsewhere.
What Class Code 5474 Usually Includes
Bureau descriptions consistently place ordinary painting contractors in 5474 when the work is not otherwise classified. The class covers interior and exterior painting of residential and commercial structures, including work on wood, stone, concrete, and similar building surfaces. It also commonly includes surface preparation, paint application by brush, roller, or spray, incidental shop operations, and the installation or dismantling of ladders, scaffolds, or platforms used for the painting job.
The code can also reach specific paint-adjacent operations when the state manual includes them. Massachusetts lists camouflage painting, paper hanging, and waterproofing by brush or hand-pressurized caulking gun under the 5474 lookup, while Wisconsin describes 5474 as painting or paperhanging NOC with shop operations and drivers. New York's digest focuses on painting or decorating NOC and separately calls out some operations that must be rated elsewhere. That state-by-state phrasing difference is why this page treats each state separately — a filed figure where the state publishes one, a relative cost index elsewhere — instead of treating one national description as binding everywhere.
Drivers connected with the painting operation are included when the state phraseology includes drivers. A crew member transporting paint, ladders, drops, sprayers, or job materials for the painting contractor is usually part of the painting exposure. A separate trucking or delivery business should not be folded into 5474 just because the cargo includes paint.
When Painting Work Is Not 5474
The highest-risk boundary is structural height and specialty work. Rating-bureau guidance commonly separates bridge painting, ship hull painting, and metal structures over two stories in height from ordinary building painting. Those jobs involve different fall, rigging, marine, or structural hazards, so payroll should be reviewed under the specific specialty painting or maritime classification instead of blended into 5474.
Trade overlap is the second boundary. Minor patching, sanding, masking, and surface preparation connected to painting can stay with 5474. Substantial drywall installation or taping, plastering, glazing, roofing, carpentry, class code 5221 concrete flatwork, sign installation, or remodeling work should be separated when the employer performs those operations as real trade work rather than incidental preparation. For nearby construction scopes, compare Plastering NOC 5480, Glazier 5462, Roofing 5551, and Cabinet or Interior Trim 5437.
Automobile, truck, aircraft, and shop-only painting are also common audit traps. A contractor painting building interiors is different from an auto-body shop, an aircraft manufacturer, or a shop that only paints parts for others. The final classification depends on the actual customer work, whether the employer performs outside job-site painting, and the state bureau's local wording.
Audit Records for Painting Contractors
The cleanest 5474 audit file separates payroll by job type before the policy year closes. Keep job tickets, customer contracts, certificates for subcontracted trades, and payroll splits that distinguish ordinary painting from bridge, ship, high metal-structure, drywall, glazing, roofing, remodeling, or shop-only work. Reconstructing those splits after an auditor asks is much harder than assigning crews correctly on the job.
California deserves separate verification. WCIRB uses dual-wage painting classifications such as 5474(1)/5482(1), and some painting, wallpaper, tank, lead-paint, or graffiti-removal operations have California-specific footnotes. A California contractor should verify wage-threshold and operation-specific rules before relying on a national 5474 comparison.
For quote shoppers, the figures on this page — filed figures where a state publishes them and a relative cost index elsewhere — are a starting point, not a binding quote. The final premium still gets modified by payroll, carrier loss-cost multipliers, experience modification, schedule credits, minimum premium, and whether the audit splits any non-5474 work to another classification.
Sources
- NYCIRB Classification Digest - Class 5474 Phraseology and Description (retrieved 2026-05-21)
- WCRIBMA MACI Search - Class 5474 (retrieved 2026-05-21)
- Wisconsin Compensation Rating Bureau - Class Code Lookup 5474 (retrieved 2026-05-21)
- WCIRB California Classification Search - Painting or Wallpaper Installation 5474(1)/5482(1) (retrieved 2026-05-21)
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