Louisiana Flooring Workers Comp Rates (2026)
Louisiana does not publish its flooring class figures online. Across the 26 states that do, the median typical premium is about $2.94 per $100 of payroll. Ask a carrier or the state's rating bureau for the current Louisiana figure.
No official Louisiana figure is available online, so the numbers below use the US median of the states that publish one.
Louisiana class code for flooring
- 5478: Floor Covering Installation - Resilient Flooring, Carpet and Laminate Flooring
- 5437 (Carpentry - Installation of Cabinet Work or Interior Trim, includes wood floor installation and sanding)
- 5348 (Tile, Stone, Mosaic or Terrazzo Work - Inside)
Flooring carries knee injury, back strain, silica dust from cutting tile or concrete, and adhesive vapor risks.
What comp costs per flooring installer in Louisiana
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 70 floor layers, except carpet, wood, and hard tiles on payrolls in Louisiana (May 2025), the 41st largest workforce of the 44 states with published figures. The median wage is $20.32 an hour, 25% below the US median of $27.15.
This trade is a smaller part of the Louisiana job market than it is nationally: floor layers, except carpet, wood, and hard tiles hold 0.23 times their national share of jobs there.
At the US median of $2.94 per $100 of payroll (Louisiana does not publish its figure online), comp on one worker at that wage costs about $0.60 for every hour worked, or $1,243 a year full time. A 2-person crew comes to roughly $2,485 a year in premium before any experience mod.
Because premium is charged on payroll, who you hire moves the bill. Louisiana pay runs from $15.82 an hour at the 10th percentile to $22.43 at the 90th, so the same rate costs $0.47 an hour on a new hire and $0.66 on a senior hand.
Workers comp requirements in Louisiana
- Coverage required: 1 employee
- Owners and sole proprietors: Owners with no employees exempt; the general contractor is a statutory employer for an uninsured sub's workers
- State fund: Competitive state fund (Louisiana Workers' Compensation Corporation)
- Waiting period: 7 days; retroactive only if disability extends beyond 6 weeks
- Penalty for going without: $250 first offense up to $10,000, plus up to a year in jail and full benefit liability
Louisiana reimburses the waiting period only if disability lasts more than six weeks, one of the longest triggers in the country.
Louisiana vs neighboring states
- Texas: about $1.60 per $100 of payroll
Louisiana does not publish its figure, so the first row is the US median. Among neighbors that publish, Texas is the cheapest for flooring comp at about $1.60 and Texas the most expensive at about $1.60 per $100 of payroll.
If your crews work across the line, list those states under item 3.A or 3.C of your policy before the job starts. Rates follow the state where the work is done, not where your office is.
What moves a flooring comp bill
- Floor installers file knee, back, and repetitive-strain claims more than falls. Kneepads and lifting aids are cheap ways to keep the experience mod down.
- Tile, hardwood, and carpet installation can be separate classes in some states. If your crews do several, record payroll by type of work.
- Many flooring shops pay installers by the square foot as 1099 subs. If they cannot show their own coverage, the auditor counts what you pay them as your payroll.
- Showroom and sales staff who do not install can usually be rated as sales or clerical when their duties are documented.