Wyoming Painting Workers Comp Rates (2026)
Wyoming employers buy painting workers comp from the state fund. The 2026 base rate for class 238000 (Specialty Trade Contractors) is $2.39 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.
Wyoming class code for painting
- 238000: Specialty Trade Contractors
Monopolistic state fund that classifies employers by NAICS industry groups (about 127 classes) instead of NCCI occupational codes, so all specialty trades share one class (238000).
Painting carries ladder fall risk, solvent exposure and lead paint hazards in buildings built before 1978.
What comp costs per painter in Wyoming
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 480 painters on payrolls in Wyoming (May 2025), the 49th largest workforce among the 50 states and DC. The median wage is $22.70 an hour, 4% below the US median of $23.75.
Painters make up about the same share of Wyoming jobs as they do nationally (location quotient 1.19).
At the Wyoming state fund's 2026 base rate of $2.39 per $100 of payroll for class 238000, comp on one worker at that wage costs about $0.54 for every hour worked, or $1,128 a year full time. A 3-person crew comes to roughly $3,385 a year in premium before any experience mod.
Because premium is charged on payroll, who you hire moves the bill. Wyoming pay runs from $15.08 an hour at the 10th percentile to $30.09 at the 90th, so the same rate costs $0.36 an hour on a new hire and $0.72 on a senior hand.
Workers comp requirements in Wyoming
- Coverage required: Any employee in construction and other extrahazardous work (occupation-based, not headcount)
- Owners and sole proprietors: Owners, partners, and officers excluded; may elect optional coverage by affidavit
- State fund: Monopolistic; coverage only from the state Workers' Safety & Compensation Division
- Waiting period: 3 days
- Penalty for going without: An uninsured employer loses exclusive-remedy protection and can be sued directly
Wyoming triggers coverage by occupation (listed extrahazardous NAICS codes, which include construction) rather than by employee count.
Wyoming vs neighboring states
Wyoming has the lowest painting comp rate in its region; every neighboring state charges more per $100 of payroll.
If your crews cross into Colorado or Idaho or Montana or Nebraska or South Dakota or Utah, your Wyoming state-fund coverage does not follow them. Buy a private policy for the out-of-state work, with Wyoming excluded from it.
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.