Michigan Flooring Workers Comp Rates (2026)

Michigan class codes for flooring

• 9521: Floor Laying or Covering Installation: Linoleum, Asphalt, Rubber or Composition Tile (House Furnishings Installation)
• 5437: Carpentry: Installation of Cabinet Work, Interior Trim or Finished Wooden Flooring; Floor Laying: Parquet; Floor Sanding or Scraping: Wood Floors
• 5348: Floor Laying: Ceramic Tile; Marble or Stone Setting; Mosaic, Stone, Terrazzo or Tile Work - Inside

Michigan is an independent bureau state that uses NCCI-style four-digit codes (the manual contains NCCI copyrighted material) but has Michigan-specific classes for several trades, e.g. 5476 painting instead of 5474, 5550 HVAC instead of 5537, a 5551 pitched vs 5552 flat roofing split, and 9521 for carpet and resilient flooring instead of 5478.

Flooring carries knee injury, back strain, silica dust from cutting tile or concrete, and adhesive vapor risks.

What comp costs per flooring installer in Michigan

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 670 floor layers, except carpet, wood, and hard tiles on payrolls in Michigan (May 2025), the 12th largest workforce of the 44 states with published figures. The median wage is $22.50 an hour, 17% below the US median of $27.15.

Floor layers, except carpet, wood, and hard tiles make up about the same share of Michigan jobs as they do nationally (location quotient 1.00).

At a typical Michigan premium of about $1.16 per $100 of payroll (the published pure premium of $0.77 for class 9521 times a 1.5 carrier multiplier), comp on one worker at that wage costs about $0.26 for every hour worked, or $543 a year full time. A 2-person crew comes to roughly $1,086 a year in premium before any experience mod.

Because premium is charged on payroll, who you hire moves the bill. Michigan pay runs from $17.72 an hour at the 10th percentile to $35.90 at the 90th, so the same rate costs $0.21 an hour on a new hire and $0.42 on a senior hand.

Workers comp requirements in Michigan

• Coverage required: 3+ employees, or 1 employee working 35+ hours/week for 13+ weeks
• Owners and sole proprietors: Owners excluded for themselves; officers may exclude themselves if they own 10%+
• State fund: Private market (no state fund)
• Waiting period: 7 days; first week also retroactive if disability continues 14+ days
• Penalty for going without: Misdemeanor: up to $1,000 and/or 6 months jail, each day a separate offense

Michigan pays wage loss at 80% of after-tax average weekly wage, not the roughly two-thirds of gross most states use.

Michigan vs neighboring states

• Indiana: about $1.20 per $100 of payroll
• Ohio: about $1.67 per $100 of payroll
• Wisconsin: about $5.39 per $100 of payroll

Michigan has the lowest flooring comp rate in its region; every neighboring state charges more per $100 of payroll.

Working across the line into Ohio needs separate coverage from that state's fund. A private policy's other-states coverage (item 3.C) does not reach monopolistic states.

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.

Related Michigan Flooring pages

• Michigan Flooring Salary
• Michigan Flooring License