Massachusetts Flooring Workers Comp Rates (2026)
The published Massachusetts rate for flooring workers comp, class 5478 (Floor Covering Installation (resilient flooring, carpet, rubber floor tile)), is $2.95 per $100 of payroll (effective July 1, 2024). Your experience modifier and any carrier discounts adjust it.
This is the published manual rate, so it already includes carrier expenses. Source.
Massachusetts class codes for flooring
- 5478: Floor Covering Installation (resilient flooring, carpet, rubber floor tile)
- 5437: Carpentry - Installation of Finished Wooden Flooring; Floor Covering Installation - Parquet; Floor Sanding or Scraping - Wood Floors
- 5348: Tile - Ceramic, Stone, Mosaic or Terrazzo Work - Inside
Massachusetts has its own classification system and manual, with NCCI-style numbers for most trades but its own codes in places (roofing split into 5545 sloped and 5547 flat, no 5537 HVAC class, no 5436), plus a wage-based Massachusetts Construction Classification Premium Adjustment Program (MCCPAP) credit for qualifying construction employers.
Flooring carries knee injury, back strain, silica dust from cutting tile or concrete, and adhesive vapor risks.
What comp costs per flooring installer in Massachusetts
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 1,060 floor layers, except carpet, wood, and hard tiles on payrolls in Massachusetts (May 2025), the 5th largest workforce of the 44 states with published figures. The median wage is $38.12 an hour, 40% above the US median of $27.15.
This trade is a bigger part of the Massachusetts job market than it is nationally: floor layers, except carpet, wood, and hard tiles hold 1.9 times their national share of jobs there.
At the published Massachusetts rate of $2.95 per $100 of payroll for class 5478, comp on one worker at that wage costs about $1.12 for every hour worked, or $2,339 a year full time. A 2-person crew comes to roughly $4,678 a year in premium before any experience mod.
Because premium is charged on payroll, who you hire moves the bill. Massachusetts pay runs from $29.48 an hour at the 10th percentile to $59.15 at the 90th, so the same rate costs $0.87 an hour on a new hire and $1.74 on a senior hand.
Workers comp requirements in Massachusetts
- Coverage required: 1 employee
- Owners and sole proprietors: Owners of an unincorporated business excluded by default; may elect in
- State fund: Private market (no state fund)
- Waiting period: 5 days; 21+ days paid retroactively from day one
- Penalty for going without: Immediate stop-work order plus $100 per day, and criminal exposure for willful failure
Massachusetts is an administered-pricing state, so carriers generally cannot compete on base rates the way they do elsewhere.
Massachusetts vs neighboring states
- Connecticut: about $3.63 per $100 of payroll
- New York: about $3.04 per $100 of payroll
- Vermont: about $3.61 per $100 of payroll
Massachusetts has the lowest flooring comp rate in its region; every neighboring state charges more 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.