Owner operator in NJ (and NY, from what I know) you can’t collect on a WC claim.
Sure, the WC agent would be happy to sign you up and take your money, but do you want to pay 6%+ of your owner pay on something you can’t use?
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some have a form you fill out cancelling a libilty
Guys here’s the bottom line if you want to grow your business be professional and get bigger jobs then get the comp. You can request waivers and it may not be required in your state but do you have disability insurance in case you are in hurt on the job? Most WC policies will cover the owner for a nominal fee or upon request. Put it to you this way I won’t let anybody work on my house unless they have comp for themselves their potential employees and full liability coverage. The only time I request a waiver is when the insurance coverage amounts are way out of whack with what I carry or what what is required in my region which is New England by the way. All you do is the same thing you would do if you were renting a lift or any other mitigating Factor on your estimate raise the price to cover the cost. When you’re first starting out WC is a pia but in my area if you don’t have claims and have a safety program in place it costs significantly less than liability one third of the cost in many cases
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Apparently, even if I have comp and I get hurt, nothing is covered because I am the owner. So I really don’t see a point in spending money that seems like won’t even be useful if something did happen. Not sure if this makes any sense or not. I am new, so I don’t really have the money to spend on comp. I have a partnership, it’s $14000 for the both of us and we need $850 down for each of us.
It’s actually 10%. I haven’t even paid myself yet, but the insurance company will assume $70000 automatically, so I have to pay $7000 for comp. Just too much for me being new.
Yeah, I understand. We’re not brand new, but we still feel there are other ways to spend our money as we get established. For now, we filed for a workers comp exemption with the State of Florida. So that will allow contractors to hire us without worrying about any kind of penalty. Also, we have an accident policy through All State that will cover any kind of accident- work or non work related. It’s $90 total for my husband and me per month. There’s going to be some jobs we don’t get because they won’t budge on having workers comp. Most people though are fine when we say we’re exempt and carry a separate policy that covers us in the event of any kind of accident.
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