Workers' compensation for sole owners: what state agencies say

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It covers eight US states, read on the agencies' own pages and in the Oregon statute on October 10, 2026. Each state sets its own workers' compensation law. Rates and premiums for tree work are on the workers' comp rates page.

The eight states side by side

State	What the agency or statute prints, and the page it comes from
California	Employers, including in construction, must carry workers' compensation even with one employee. A licensee gives the board a certificate of insurance, a certificate of self-insurance, or a signed exemption certifying no employees. Active C-61/D-49 Tree Service contractors, along with C-8, C-20, C-22 and C-39 contractors, must carry coverage or self-insurance whether or not they have employees, citing Business and Professions Code section 7125. Source: CSLB requirements page.
Washington	No private coverage: it is bought from the state agency or held by a certified self-insured employer. Some corporate officers and LLC members are excluded from mandatory coverage, and owners can elect coverage. Details below. Source: L&I account pages.
Oregon	Every worker is a subject worker unless an exemption applies, of which the division says there are about 30. The statute lists sole proprietors, partners and LLC members as nonsubject workers, with conditions. Details below. Source: ORS 656.027, 656.128.
Texas	Private employers can choose to carry coverage, and it is not required in most cases. The page does not address sole owners separately. Source: TDI employer page.
Florida	Coverage is required for construction employers with 1 or more employees and non-construction employers with 4 or more, counting any non-exempt business owners. Corporate officers and LLC members can apply for an exemption. Details below. Source: DWC FAQ, exemptions.
New York	The board lists sole proprietors with no employees as not needing insurance, and says business owners can always include themselves on a policy. Source: WCB fact sheet, CE-200.
Pennsylvania	An employer is excluded only if all its workers are in listed categories, which include a sole proprietor or general partners with no other employees. Source: LIBC-200.
Ohio	Coverage on a sole proprietor, partners and some others is elective. Corporate owner-officers are treated differently. Details below. Source: BWC form U-3.

Washington

Washington Labor & Industries says the state does not allow private workers' compensation coverage, so an employer buys it from the agency or is a certified self-insured employer. Its corporate officers page says some officers are exempt from mandatory coverage, in public, non-public and family corporations, and that substance matters more than form: workers named as officers who do not meet the criteria must be covered.

An officer of a non-public corporation must be a bona fide officer, a shareholder with stock in their own name, and exercise substantial control in the daily management of the corporation. The page says a corporation can have up to 8 officers excluded.
An officer of a public corporation must meet those tests, be a bona fide director as well, and not perform manual labor as part of their duties.
A family corporation is a non-public corporation where all the officers are related within the third degree. If any officer is not related, the non-public criteria apply instead.
For an LLC with no managers, the LLC members page says members are generally excluded. For an LLC with managers, every manager who is also a member is excluded when all the managers are related within the third degree. Where the managers are not all related, at most 8 manager-members with substantial control are excluded.

The accounts page says owner coverage is available for sole proprietors, partners, limited liability partners, excluded corporate officers and excluded LLC members, by applying on the agency's elective coverage form. It says coverage begins the day after the agency receives the request unless a later date is given, and that cancellation for sole proprietors and partners takes effect on the date the agency receives written notice unless a later date is given.

Oregon

The Workers' Compensation Division says Oregon requires almost all employers to carry coverage, that a worker is anyone paid to do work who is not an independent contractor, and that every worker is a subject worker unless an exemption applies. It points to ORS 656.027 for the list.

Paragraph (7)(a) of ORS 656.027 makes sole proprietors nonsubject workers, and says that when labor or services are performed under contract the sole proprietor must qualify as an independent contractor to be nonsubject. Paragraph (7)(b) deals with sole proprietors actively licensed under ORS 671.525 or 701.021: they must qualify as an independent contractor when working under contract for remuneration, and one involved in activities subject to those licences is conclusively presumed to be an independent contractor.
Subsection (8) makes partners who are not engaged in work performed in direct connection with the construction, alteration, repair, improvement, moving or demolition of an improvement on real property nonsubject workers, except as subsection (23) provides.
Subsection (9) makes LLC members, including managers, nonsubject workers regardless of the work, except as subsection (25) provides. The same subsection says members of LLCs with more than one member are subject workers while engaged in that construction-related work.
ORS 656.128 lets a sole proprietor, an LLC member, a partner or an independent contractor under ORS 670.600 apply in writing to an insurer to become entitled as a subject worker. The insurer may accept, and fixes a classification and an assumed monthly wage.

Florida

The division's FAQ says construction employers with 1 or more employees, including any non-exempt business owners, and non-construction employers with 4 or more employees, including any non-exempt business owners, need coverage. It cites section 440.02(20) of the Florida Statutes and says the trades counted as construction are listed in Florida Administrative Code rule 69L-6.021. The exemptions page says an exemption is issued to an officer of a corporation or a member of an LLC, not to the business, and that the person is then not considered an employee and may not recover workers' compensation benefits.

For construction, the exemption page lists these eligibility points: the corporation or LLC is active with the Florida Department of State; a corporate applicant is listed there as an officer; the applicant attests to at least 10 percent ownership; a corporation, or a group of affiliated corporations and LLCs, can have at most three officers elect the exemption; the application fee is US$50; and the applicant cannot be affiliated with an active stop work order.

New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio

The New York board's fact sheet lists who does not need insurance: sole proprietors with no employees, individuals in partnerships or LLC members with no employees, and officers of a corporation with one or two owner-officers who together hold all the stock, each with at least one share, and all the corporate offices, with no employees. It also says employees can include day laborers, family members and most subcontractors, and that workers under a business's direct control may be employees whatever their tax status. The CE-200 page says a certificate of attestation of exemption is for showing a government entity that an applicant for a license, permit or contract is not required to carry coverage, and that only entities operating in New York with no employees, and out-of-state entities working wholly outside New York, may apply.

The Pennsylvania publication says insurance is mandatory for any employer with at least one employee who could be injured or develop a work-related disease in the state, unless all employees are excluded. Its list of exclusions includes a sole proprietor or general partners with no other employees, LLCs where only the employees are members, and executive officers granted exclusion by the department. It adds that part-time workers and family members such as a spouse or children count. It says an executive officer may apply for exclusion who owns part of a subchapter S corporation, owns at least 5 percent of a subchapter C corporation, or serves without pay in a non-profit corporation. Under section 302 of the Act, a municipality asks a contractor for proof of coverage or an affidavit that the contractor employs no other individuals and is not required to carry coverage before it issues a building permit.

The Ohio application form lists elective coverage under rule 4123-17-07 of the Ohio Administrative Code for a sole proprietor, a partnership, an LLC acting as a sole proprietor or partnership, family farm corporate officers, ministers and an individual incorporated as a corporation. It says a sole proprietor, partner, or individual incorporated without employees applies for a policy if they wish to cover themselves, and that corporations with more than one owner-officer have officers who meet the definition of statutory employee unless they meet exclusion criteria. It states that if elective coverage is not added and the person is injured at work, other insurance may not cover the work-related disability or medical bills. The application fee printed is US$120, non-refundable, and elective premium is assessed on top of the US$120 minimum premium.