North Dakota Painting Workers Comp Rates (2026)
North Dakota employers buy painting workers comp from the state fund. The 2026 base rate for class 5474 (Painting) is $3.85 per $100 of payroll, before your experience modifier.
The state fund sets one base rate per class; your experience modifier moves it up or down. Source.
North Dakota class code for painting
- 5474: Painting
Monopolistic state fund with its own manual of about 140 rate classes; several numbers echo NCCI codes but scopes are broader (for example 5183 covers plumbing, HVAC and sheet metal together, and roofing is 5545 hot process or 5410 cold process).
Painting carries ladder fall risk, solvent exposure and lead paint hazards in buildings built before 1978.
What comp costs per painter in North Dakota
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 420 painters on payrolls in North Dakota (May 2025), the 51st largest workforce among the 50 states and DC. The median wage is $26.38 an hour, 11% above the US median of $23.75.
This trade is a smaller part of the North Dakota job market than it is nationally: painters hold 0.68 times their national share of jobs there.
At the North Dakota state fund's 2026 base rate of $3.85 per $100 of payroll for class 5474, comp on one worker at that wage costs about $1.02 for every hour worked, or $2,113 a year full time. A 3-person crew comes to roughly $6,338 a year in premium before any experience mod.
Because premium is charged on payroll, who you hire moves the bill. North Dakota pay runs from $17.71 an hour at the 10th percentile to $37.64 at the 90th, so the same rate costs $0.68 an hour on a new hire and $1.45 on a senior hand.
Workers comp requirements in North Dakota
- Coverage required: Any employee (coverage in force before work begins)
- Owners and sole proprietors: Not required to cover self; optional personal coverage through WSI
- State fund: Monopolistic; coverage only from Workforce Safety & Insurance (WSI), no private carriers or self-insurance
- Waiting period: 5 days
- Penalty for going without: Up to $10,000 plus $100 per day, cease-and-desist orders, and liability for claim costs during the lapse
North Dakota is one of only four monopolistic states, and it allows neither private carriers nor self-insurance, only WSI.
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.