Louisiana Painting Workers Comp Rates (2026)
Louisiana does not publish its painting class figures online. Across the 26 states that do, the median typical premium is about $4.43 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 painting
- 5474: Painting NOC & Shop Operations, Drivers
- 5037 (Painting: Metal Structures - Over Two Stories in Height & Drivers)
- 5491 (Paperhanging & Drivers)
Painting carries ladder fall risk, solvent exposure and lead paint hazards in buildings built before 1978.
What comp costs per painter in Louisiana
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 4,090 painters on payrolls in Louisiana (May 2025), the 17th largest workforce among the 50 states and DC. The median wage is $22.31 an hour, 6% below the US median of $23.75.
This trade is a bigger part of the Louisiana job market than it is nationally: painters hold 1.5 times their national share of jobs there.
At the US median of $4.43 per $100 of payroll (Louisiana does not publish its figure online), comp on one worker at that wage costs about $0.99 for every hour worked, or $2,056 a year full time. A 3-person crew comes to roughly $6,167 a year in premium before any experience mod.
Because premium is charged on payroll, who you hire moves the bill. Louisiana pay runs from $15.39 an hour at the 10th percentile to $28.52 at the 90th, so the same rate costs $0.68 an hour on a new hire and $1.26 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 $1.03 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 painting comp at about $1.03 and Texas the most expensive at about $1.03 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 painting comp bill
- Painting rates are set by height and surface: interior repaint work and exterior or industrial painting can fall into different classes in many states. Describe your mix accurately at quote time.
- Ladder and scaffold falls are the costly claims. Scaffold training and inspection logs help when you ask a carrier for safety credits.
- Painting crews lean on 1099 labor. Without a certificate of insurance on file, the auditor will add those payments to your payroll.
- Seasonal exterior work makes payroll hard to forecast. Estimate the year, not your busiest month, so the deposit and the audit stay close.