Tennessee Flooring Workers Comp Rates (2026)
Tennessee 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 Tennessee figure.
No official Tennessee figure is available online, so the numbers below use the US median of the states that publish one.
Tennessee 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 Tennessee
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 200 floor layers, except carpet, wood, and hard tiles on payrolls in Tennessee (May 2025), the 29th largest workforce of the 44 states with published figures. The median wage is $23.99 an hour, 12% below the US median of $27.15.
This trade is a smaller part of the Tennessee job market than it is nationally: floor layers, except carpet, wood, and hard tiles hold 0.41 times their national share of jobs there.
At the US median of $2.94 per $100 of payroll (Tennessee does not publish its figure online), comp on one worker at that wage costs about $0.71 for every hour worked, or $1,467 a year full time. A 2-person crew comes to roughly $2,934 a year in premium before any experience mod.
Because premium is charged on payroll, who you hire moves the bill. Tennessee pay runs from $17.07 an hour at the 10th percentile to $30.85 at the 90th, so the same rate costs $0.50 an hour on a new hire and $0.91 on a senior hand.
Workers comp requirements in Tennessee
- Coverage required: 5+ employees; 1 for construction
- Owners and sole proprietors: Construction owners may exempt themselves via the state registry; employees must be covered
- State fund: Private market (no state fund)
- Waiting period: 7 days; retroactive to day one if disability lasts more than 14 days
- Penalty for going without: Civil penalties $50-$10,000 or 1.5x the avoided premium; an injury while uninsured escalates to a misdemeanor
Tennessee runs an Uninsured Employers Fund, financed by penalties, that pays workers injured by illegally uninsured employers.
Tennessee vs neighboring states
- Alabama: about $2.38 per $100 of payroll
- Georgia: about $4.35 per $100 of payroll
- Missouri: about $4.07 per $100 of payroll
- North Carolina: about $1.88 per $100 of payroll
Tennessee does not publish its figure, so the first row is the US median. Among neighbors that publish, North Carolina is the cheapest for flooring comp at about $1.88 and Georgia the most expensive at about $4.35 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.