Workers' Compensation Rates in Utah (2026)

State Overview

Utah requires all employers to carry workers' comp. The state has some of the lowest rates in the nation.

Understanding Utah Workers' Comp Rates

Utah is an NCCI state with a competitive market and some of the lowest workers' compensation costs in the country. NCCI files advisory loss costs with the Utah Insurance Department, which reviews them before each insurer applies its own loss-cost multiplier (LCM). Utah's annual loss-cost filing carries an anticipated effective date of February 1, 2026 — not the January 1 date used by most NCCI states — so Utah renewals priced early in the calendar year may still reflect the prior year's filing. The Labor Commission of Utah, through its Division of Industrial Accidents, administers the system itself: it handles coverage compliance, dispute adjudication, and the medical fee schedule under the Utah Workers' Compensation Act (Utah Code Title 34A).

Utah also has a competitive state fund, WCF Insurance (originally the Workers Compensation Fund of Utah), which writes alongside private carriers rather than using the exclusive state-fund model documented in Ohio workers' compensation rates. Because Utah is an advisory-loss-cost state, the NCCI number is only a starting point — each carrier, including WCF, files its own LCM, so two Utah insurers can quote the same class code at materially different prices. Your actual premium is the class-code loss cost × LCM × experience modification factor × payroll/100, plus or minus schedule rating credits or debits.

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

There is no Utah workers' comp class code for a job title. NCCI files the classifications used in Utah, 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 Utah's classifications in the uniform classification plan and rating manual that Section 31A-19a-406 makes the designated rate service organization file with the commissioner (no edition year and no state-titled manual — Utah adopts a classification SYSTEM by statute instead of a book by name. Utah Code Section 31A-19a-403(1) defines the uniform classification plan as one that is consistent between all insurers of classification codes and descriptions and groups like workers' compensation exposures for underwriting, rating and statistical reporting; Section 31A-19a-404(1) has the commissioner designate a single rate service organization to develop and administer it; and Section 31A-19a-406(1) requires that organization to file the plan, its rating manual, the uniform experience rating plan manual and the uniform statistical plan manual with the commissioner at least 30 calendar days before they are distributed to members, subscribers or anyone else. NCCI is the organization doing that work — its own State Reference Guide for Utah records NCCI as the state jurisdiction for data reporting, files loss costs on behalf of the carriers writing in the state and produces both intrastate and interstate experience rating modifications — and its most recent published Utah filing summary recommended a 5.8% loss cost decrease effective February 1, 2025, filed with the Utah Insurance Department on August 28, 2024. What governs is therefore the most recent plan filing, not a dated edition). To confirm the classification for a specific business, use the Utah Insurance Department's own workers' compensation page, which indexes the rate statutes that govern classification, names the Property and Casualty Division that reviews the filings, and is where the department's compiled workers' compensation loss cost multiplier list is ordered, published by the Utah Insurance Department rather than by NCCI — that is the filed authority for Utah, and a code quoted from another state's manual is not. Utah writes the argument down as a statutory grievance and puts the first step on the rating organization rather than on the regulator. Under Utah Code Section 31A-19a-217(1) an insured affected by a rate submits a written request for information to the rate service organization or the insurer that made the rate, and that organization or insurer has 45 calendar days to answer by furnishing all pertinent rating information to the insured or the insured's authorized representative. Under Subsection (2) a person aggrieved by the manner in which a rating system has been applied submits a written request for review, and the rate service organization or insurer must then provide a reasonable review procedure inside Utah at which the employer may be heard in person or through a representative; if the request for review is not granted within 30 calendar days the employer appeals in writing to the commissioner, who may order the review to be provided. Subsection (3) then lets the employer ask the commissioner to confirm that the insurance was rated according to the filed rates and rating plans. Section 31A-19a-218 is the separate route for attacking the filing itself: a written application for a hearing that specifies the grounds and states why the filing does not meet the requirements of law, granted where the application is made in good faith and the grievance is justified, held within 30 calendar days of receipt and on at least 10 days' written notice to the applicant, to every insurer that made the filing and to every rate service organization that made it, and ending — if the commissioner finds the filing defective — in an order setting a date after which it ceases to be effective, which may not reach a policy issued before that date.

Utah is the state where the classification you are arguing about may not be in anybody's manual. Section 31A-19a-404(3)(b) makes every workers' compensation insurer adhere to the uniform classification plan the designated rate service organization filed with the commissioner — and then Subsection (5)(a) says that notwithstanding that, an insurer may develop, directly or through its own selected rate service organization, subclassifications of the uniform classification system upon which a rate may be made. A subclassification is filed 30 days before use and the commissioner disapproves it only if the insurer fails to show that the data it produces can still be reported consistently with the uniform statistical and classification plans, and Subsection (6) lets an insurer develop its own experience modifications on the same footing. So a Utah quote can carry a carrier-specific class sitting underneath the state's four-digit one, and comparing two Utah quotes code for code is not always comparing like with like. Two more things a multi-state employer will not expect. Utah's loss cost year turns on February 1 rather than January 1 — NCCI's filing before last took effect January 1, 2024 and the next one took effect February 1, 2025 — so a Utah renewal priced in January can still be sitting on the prior year's filing. And the per-class numbers are public without being posted: Section 31A-19a-204 makes filed rates and supplementary rate information open to public inspection at any reasonable time and has the commissioner supply copies to any person on request and on payment of a reasonable charge, which in practice is the department's compiled workers' compensation loss cost multiplier list — $5.00, emailed on request by the Property and Casualty Division, rather than published as a file the way Alabama or Colorado publish theirs.

the Utah Insurance Department's own workers' compensation page, which indexes the rate statutes that govern classification, names the Property and Casualty Division that reviews the filings, and is where the department's compiled workers' compensation loss cost multiplier list is ordered (official Utah lookup)

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Related Guides for Utah Employers

• The Complete Guide to Workers' Comp Costs in 2026

  National benchmarks, the 2026 state rate-change table, and how to budget your premium.

• Compare Workers' Comp Rates by State

  Rank the states by cost index and see the filed figures for a class code, side by side with up to two other states.

• Workers' Comp Premium Calculator

  Work out annual premium from your Utah class-code rate, payroll, and experience modification factor.

• Workers' Comp Class Codes Explained

  How NCCI assigns a code to each job and why it creates a 10–25× swing in your rate.

• NCCI Class Code Lookup & Directory

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

• Experience Modification Rate (EMR) Explained

  How your claims history becomes a multiplier that raises or lowers your Utah premium.

• 5 Proven Ways to Lower Your Workers' Comp Premium

  Tactics any small business can use to reduce cost at next renewal — from classification audits to return-to-work programs.

• How Rates Are Calculated: NCCI vs Independent States

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