What Workers Comp Costs
for Septic Contractors.
The most transparent premium you buy, because almost every input is filed and public. Here are the actual published numbers for this work, and the arithmetic that turns them into your bill.
We shop your septic business with carriers like
What we check before marketing a comp account
In this order, because that is the order the money is in.
Your classification against the work you actually perform
Split by operation, not rounded into one code. Cleaning, excavation and construction-type work are separately filed and differently priced.
Your experience modifier worksheet
Checked for errors, because they happen, and read for what is actually driving it.
Your payroll estimate against reality
A low estimate is a deferred bill, not a saving.
Filed credits your state offers
Such as New York’s construction classification premium adjustment, where a higher average hourly wage earns a published credit.
The Septic Cleaning Insurance Group Policy Review
We read the whole policy
Before we quote anything we read what you already have, cover to cover, and tell you plainly what it does and does not do.
We map your actual operation
Pumping, installation, hauling, grease trap, portable units: each one underwrites differently. We classify what you really do, not a generic contractor code.
We shop carriers who understand septic risk
Standard markets when they fit, specialty and E&S markets when they do not. If a carrier does not understand pollution exposure, we do not use them.
We explain the quote in plain language
You get the number, the limits, the exclusions that matter, and the reasoning. No pass-through, no blind binding.
Why this is the line worth auditing first
It is usually the largest single premium on a crewed account
And the one with the most structural error in it, because classification decisions get made once and then inherited for years.
The inputs are public, so errors are provable
You do not have to take anyone’s word for a class rate. It is filed.
Fixing classification compounds
A corrected code changes the multiplier on every future year, not just this renewal.
And the modifier rewards the work you should be doing anyway
Frequency reduction improves both your premium and your crews’ chances of going home.
Payroll, divided by 100, times a class rate, times your modifier
Workers compensation is the most transparent premium you buy. The inputs are filed and public, which means you can check whether yours is right.
Start with payroll per hundred dollars
Not revenue, not headcount. Payroll, split by the operation each person actually performs, divided by 100.
Multiply by the class rate for that operation
Set by your state’s rating bureau and filed publicly. This is where septic businesses lose or save the most money, because the codes covering cleaning work, excavation, sewer construction and plumbing carry materially different numbers.
Multiply by your experience modifier
NCCI’s own illustration uses $100,000 of premium: a 0.75 modifier produces $75,000, a 1.25 modifier produces $125,000. Identical payroll, identical rates, a $50,000 swing.
Then apply credits, where your state files them
New York, for example, files a construction classification premium adjustment programme where a higher average hourly wage earns a premium credit on a published schedule. Credits are filed too, which means they are claimable rather than negotiable.
Sources: NCCI, ABCs of Experience Rating
What the bureaus actually publish for this work
These are per $100 of payroll. We are showing three states deliberately, because the spread is the point.
A loss cost is not a rate, and the difference is money
New York and Alabama publish loss costs, which cover projected claim costs only. Insurers then apply their own approved loss cost multiplier on top to cover expenses and profit, and that produces the rate you actually pay. Nebraska’s figures below are residual market rates, which already include that loading. Anyone quoting you a bureau loss cost as your price is understating it.
- New York, effective 1 October 2026 (loss costs). Street and sewer cleaning 2.577 · sewer construction 4.248 · excavation 3.227 · irrigation and drainage construction 2.254 · septic installation by dry well digger 2.118 · plumbing 3.519 · sewage disposal plant operation 1.075 · garbage and refuse collection 5.091
- Those New York figures came down sharply year on year: street and sewer cleaning fell 18.0 percent from 3.142, garbage collection fell 24.3 percent, and sewage disposal plant operation fell 32.9 percent
- Alabama advisory loss costs: street and sewer cleaning 4.79 · excavation 2.94 · irrigation and drainage 2.96 · sewer construction 2.74 · plumbing 1.73
- Nebraska residual market rates: street and sewer cleaning $6.05 · excavation $5.50 · sewer construction $9.25 · septic installation $4.25 · garbage collection $11.65, with a $1,000 minimum premium
- Those are three different states, three different effective dates, and two different kinds of number
- The same category of work sits at 2.577 in one state and $6.05 in another
- Your own state’s filed number is the one that governs you, and we will look it up rather than estimate
- Nationally, Oregon’s state agency put the 2024 median premium level at $1.09 per $100 of payroll, with the highest state at $2.52 and the lowest at $0.50
Sources: NYCIRB Bulletin R.C. 2659 (loss costs effective 1 Oct 2026), Alabama DOI, Advisory Loss Costs, Nebraska DOI, Residual Market Rate Pages, Oregon DCBS, Premium Index Rate Study
Be sceptical of anyone who gives you a septic class code off a website
Including us. Here is what the bureau documents actually say, and where the commonly repeated version goes beyond them.
The filed phraseology does not say “septic tank cleaning”
Wisconsin’s rating bureau publishes its class descriptions openly. Under the street cleaning code, the listed operations include cess pool cleaning, sewer cleaning and drivers, and sewer T.V. and cleaning. The exact phrase “septic tank cleaning” does not appear. The equation you see repeated online comes from agency websites, not bureau filings.
Installation is classified by who performs it
The same bureau lists septic tank installation by specialist contractors under different codes depending on whether the work is done by a dry well digger or a concrete tank manufacturer. The classification follows the operation and the operator, not the words on your truck.
Which means a septic business can legitimately touch several codes
Cleaning work, excavation, sewer construction and plumbing-type work are separately filed. A company doing all of them is not one code, and splitting payroll correctly is the difference between a fair premium and an audit dispute.
And bureaus do not all agree
Several states run independent bureaus rather than following NCCI, with their own filed phraseology and their own numbers. The right answer for you is your state’s, confirmed with your carrier, not a national rule of thumb.
Sources: Wisconsin Compensation Rating Bureau, Class Code Descriptions
Lots of small claims hurt more than one big one
This surprises most owners, and it changes what you should actually focus on.
Each claim is split, and the smaller portion counts for more
NCCI’s plan divides every claim at a filed split point into a primary and an excess portion, and the primary portion is weighted more heavily in the calculation. The practical effect is that claim frequency moves your modifier more than a single severe loss does.
Which means the small recordable you did not report matters
Three modest claims can do more damage to your modifier than one serious one. For a septic operation, that points at the routine strains, slips and hand injuries rather than only at the catastrophic confined space scenario.
Medical-only claims are discounted, not ignored
Under the experience rating adjustment, medical-only claims are reduced to 30 percent of both their primary and excess portions. They still count. They just count less.
You become subject to a modifier at a filed threshold
Once your subject premium passes your state’s eligibility point, experience rating is mandatory rather than optional. NCCI’s illustration uses $14,000 in the most recent two years, or an average of $7,000 across the experience period, and notes that 39 jurisdictions use its plan.
Sources: NCCI, ABCs of Experience Rating
Underwriters who’ve actually walked a septic job site
Septic Cleaning Insurance Group
We built this agency around one gap we kept seeing: big-box commercial insurers write septic contractor policies the same way they write policies for any other trade, missing the environmental and pollution exposure that actually matters in this business. Our team goes deep on septic-specific risk before recommending coverage, maintains relationships with carriers who understand pumping, installation, and disposal operations specifically, and keeps specialty and E&S markets in reserve for the accounts standard carriers will not touch.
Straight answers, no insurance-speak
Payroll divided by 100, multiplied by the class rate for the operation, multiplied by your experience modifier, then adjusted by any filed credits your state offers. Every one of those inputs except your payroll is published, which means the calculation is checkable rather than mysterious.
There is no single one, and we would be careful with anyone who gives you a number off a website. Wisconsin’s bureau publishes its class descriptions openly and the street cleaning code lists cess pool cleaning and sewer cleaning, but the exact phrase septic tank cleaning does not appear in it. Installation is classified separately and varies by who performs the work. Your state’s bureau is the authority.
A loss cost covers projected claim costs only. Your insurer applies its own approved loss cost multiplier on top for expenses and profit, which produces the rate you pay. New York and Alabama publish loss costs; Nebraska’s residual market figures are rates. Confusing the two understates the price, and it is the most common error on cost pages in this niche.
Because the rates are filed state by state. The category covering street and sewer cleaning carries a New York loss cost of 2.577 per $100 of payroll effective October 2026, an Alabama advisory loss cost of 4.79, and a Nebraska residual market rate of $6.05. Oregon’s state agency put the 2024 national median premium level at $1.09 per $100 of payroll, with the top state at $2.52 and the lowest at $0.50.
It may not be you. New York’s October 2026 filing moved street and sewer cleaning down 18 percent and garbage collection down 24 percent, so filed numbers move independently of your experience in both directions. If your premium moved the other way, the explanation is in your classification, your payroll, your modifier or your carrier’s multiplier, and those are checkable one at a time.
Reduce claim frequency first. Because each claim is split and the primary portion is weighted more heavily, several small claims damage your modifier more than one severe one. Medical-only claims are reduced to 30 percent but still count. The work is in the routine injuries, not only in the dramatic scenarios.
If your classification is wrong, shopping it produces several versions of the same wrong number. We look at the classification and the modifier worksheet before we market anything, because that is where the structural savings are.
Only partly, and that is worth knowing. Ohio is a monopolistic state, so you buy workers compensation from the state fund and there is no private market to shop. Your cost is driven by your Ohio classification and your claims experience. What we help with there is the stop gap employers liability that the state fund policy does not include, which is explained on the workers compensation coverage page.
Get Your Workers Compensation Cost Septic Insurance Quote
A few quick questions about your operation. Takes about 2 minutes. Prefer to talk first? Call (855) 461-2010.
Think your classification might be wrong?
Send your declarations and your mod worksheet. That is usually enough to tell you within a day.
No pressure. If we’re not the right fit for your business, we’ll tell you straight.
Workers comp for septic contractors by state
Filed rates and mandatory thresholds differ at every state line. Pick yours.