A B2B SaaS team is usually fully remote, so the real work is registering the policy in every state an engineer lives, not choosing a limit. The payroll rates to the low clerical and computer-programming class codes, and a single strain claim on a small headcount is what moves the experience modifier, so a fast return-to-work plan matters more than the premium.
Workers compensation insurance for technology companies
Pays a tech employee's medical bills and lost wages when they are hurt doing their job, on a no-fault basis, whether they are in the office or working from a home desk. In exchange, the worker gives up the right to sue you over the injury, the trade known as the compensation bargain.
Why Coverwatch
- Markets
- 60+ markets that will write a distributed software workforce and register the policy in every state your people live, instead of leaving a remote hire uninsured under an unlisted state's law.
- Multi-state
- We map where every employee actually resides and build the schedule so the coverage answers in each state, including the monopolistic state funds a standard placement quietly leaves off.
- Class codes
- We rate your payroll to the low clerical and computer-programming codes it belongs in, not a blended catch-all, and manage the file so one strain claim on a small payroll does not spike the rate for years.
For technology
- What it covers
- Your own employees' medical bills and lost wages for a work injury, including a remote worker hurt at a home desk.
- What it doesn't
- Injury to a client or a member of the public, and any software, advice, or data claim, which are different policies.
Trusted by 60+ carrier partners
What does workers compensation insurance cover for a technology company?
Workers compensation insurance for technology companies pays an employee's medical bills, lost wages, and disability benefits after an on-the-job injury, including a remote engineer hurt at a home desk, on a no-fault basis. It turns mandatory in almost every state the moment you hire, and each remote worker is generally covered under the law of their own home state.
How workers compensation insurance for technology companies actually works
A workers compensation policy is built from two parts that do different jobs.
Employees trigger it, not a job site
The obligation attaches to having people on payroll, not to a warehouse or a physical site.
A remote hire is covered where they live
Workers comp follows the employee, so a worker is generally covered under the statute of the state where they reside and do the work.
The class rate sits near the bottom
Software, clerical, and IT work carries very low injury frequency, so the class codes an underwriter assigns to a tech payroll are among the cheapest in the…
How we get you covered
We take workers’ compensation for technology to 60+ markets, build it to fit your contracts, and keep your certificates compliant.
Read your risk
We map what could actually go wrong in your operation, where a claim would come from, and who would bring it.
Shop 60+ markets
We take your risk to the carriers that know your class and make them compete on price and terms.
Build the endorsements
We add the endorsement wording that decides whether the policy responds to a claim, beyond the base form.
Keep you compliant
We handle the COIs, additional-insured certs, and renewals, so you are never the one chasing paperwork.
Get a quoteFlat fee, no markup on your premium.
What's covered, and what isn't
In the policy
Medical benefits for a work injury
Pays the full cost of treating an on-the-job injury for any employee, from the first visit through surgery, physical therapy, and prescriptions.
Wage replacement, the indemnity benefit
Replaces a portion of the income an employee loses while they cannot work, typically around two-thirds of their average weekly wage up to a state cap.
Disability benefits
Pays when an injury leaves a worker permanently or partially unable to do their job, such as a nerve condition that limits typing or lifting.
Death and survivor benefits
Pays funeral costs and ongoing wage-based benefits to a spouse, children, or other dependents when a work injury or illness is fatal.
Employers liability, Part Two
Defends and pays when an injury leads to a lawsuit outside the no-fault system, such as a spouse's claim or a third party seeking contribution.
Rehabilitation and return-to-work
Covers the medical care and vocational support needed to bring an injured worker back to the job.
Not in the policy
A client's financial loss from your software
When a bug, an outage, or a missed deliverable causes a customer a financial loss, that is a professional-services claim, not a bodily injury to your staff.
Covered by Technology E&O / Professional Liability
A breach of customer data
If customer records are exposed or held for ransom, the notification, forensics, and privacy lawsuits are a data event, not a work injury.
Covered by Cyber Liability
A client or visitor injured at your office
Someone who is not your employee, a client in your office or a delivery visitor, is a third-party liability claim rather than a workers comp one.
Covered by General Liability
Wrongful termination and discrimination claims
An employee suing over a firing, harassment, or discrimination, common as a company scales headcount fast, is an employment dispute, not a bodily injury.
Covered by Employment Practices Liability (EPLI)
An independent contractor's own injury
A true freelancer or agency contractor who is not on your payroll carries their own coverage, so their injury is not your workers comp claim.
Covered by the contractor's own coverage
A founder who opts out of coverage
A sole owner or excluded officer who elects off the policy has no workers comp benefits if they are hurt.
Covered by a personal health plan
Get a quoteGet a policy built for technology.
Claims workers’ compensation pays
A low-hazard tech team still files claims, and they cluster around the desk and the road rather than a shop floor. These are the workers comp injuries software and IT companies actually see, with the typical medical and indemnity cost to close each.
ScenarioHow the claim happensTypical cost
Repetitive-strain injury at a workstation
Carpal tunnel, a wrist tendon condition, or a rotator-cuff strain develops over months of keyboard and mouse work.
$20K–$70K
Fall or slip at a home office
A remote worker trips over equipment, falls from a chair, or slips at the home desk during working hours.
$15K–$60K
Neck or back strain from poor ergonomics
Long hours hunched over a laptop without a proper setup produce neck, shoulder, and lower-back strain that keeps a worker on reduced duty.
$10K–$50K
Injury on a work trip or at a client site
A traveling employee is hurt on a business trip, at a conference, or while on site with a customer.
$25K–$90K
Ranges are typical medical and indemnity bands for these claim types, not a quote. Actual cost depends on the worker's state, the body part, severity, and how quickly the worker returns to modified duty.
Get a quoteGet covered before a claim lands.
What technology buyers are required to carry
The limits contracts and statutes set for this line, and what moves your premium and terms.
What buyers require
- State statute
- Required from employee one
- Enterprise customer or MSA
- Proof of WC, sometimes raised limits
- Office or coworking lease
- Proof of WC for on-site staff
- Monopolistic state fund
- Part One from the state fund
In 49 states workers comp is legally mandated, usually starting at the first employee, in the state where each worker performs the work. Texas is the lone exception, where private coverage is optional, but opting out forfeits the immunity from employee injury lawsuits.
A large customer's master services agreement and security or vendor onboarding often require a certificate showing active workers comp, occasionally with employers liability above the standard, before the deal clears procurement.
A commercial landlord or coworking operator commonly requires a certificate of workers comp for any staff working on the premises before the space is licensed to the company.
An employee living in North Dakota, Ohio, Washington, or Wyoming must have Part One placed with that state's fund rather than a private carrier, so a remote hire there needs a separate placement and a stop-gap endorsement for the lawsuit exposure.
What sets your cost and terms
- Coverage in every state your team works
- Because workers comp is statutory and local, a multistate employer carries the right form, or reaches it through other-states coverage.
- Employees, not contractors, create the mandate
- The obligation to carry workers comp attaches when you have employees on payroll.
- Class codes and payroll split
- Premium is built on payroll, and each role is rated by its own class code.
- The states your team lives in
- Rates and rules are set state by state, so a team spread across many states pulls in many rate tables and filing obligations at once.
- Experience modification factor
- Even with low frequency, one open claim on a small payroll can push the experience modifier above average and multiply the whole premium for three years.
- Employers liability limit selected
- Raising the Part Two employers liability limit toward what an enterprise contract demands adds premium.
How this changes by technology segment
The policy is the same product; the exposure, the limit, and the exclusions to watch shift by segment.
MSPs and managed IT
An MSP puts technicians on client sites racking hardware and pulling cable, so part of the payroll rates above the clerical code and has to be split out rather than blended. Field and install work carries a higher injury frequency than a desk, which is why an MSP's workers comp reads differently from a pure-software shop even at the same headcount.
IT consultants
Project-based consulting means constant travel to client sites, so a work-trip fall or an in-transit injury is the live exposure, not a workstation strain. A traveling employee is generally in the course of employment for the trip, and many engagements ask for a certificate of workers comp before the work can start.
A fintech is desk-bound and low-hazard like any software company, but it tends to scale headcount across many states faster, which multiplies the state filings and the monopolistic-fund placements the policy has to reach. The cost per person stays small, but the compliance map is what grows.
Endorsements that close the gaps
The base form is the start. These add-ons are where the policy gets built to fit technology.
Other states coverage
WC 00 03 26Extends the policy to states not listed on the declarations, so a new remote hire in a state you had not scheduled is not left with an uninsured claim under…
Stop-gap, employers liability
Adds Part Two employers liability for employees in the monopolistic states.
Waiver of subrogation
WC 00 03 13Stops your carrier from recovering a paid claim from a customer you contract with.
Sole proprietor or officer inclusion
Brings a founder or officer who would otherwise be excluded back onto the policy.
By the numbers
The class codes, low-hazard loss data, and multi-state rules that surface when a technology company gets underwritten for workers compensation or has to prove coverage to a customer or a landlord.
- Clerical class code rate
- NCCI 8810, lowest tier
- Software class code
- NCCI 8859
- Information-sector injury rate
- About 1.0 per 100 workers
- Standard employers liability limits
- $100K / $500K / $100K
- Texas opt-out
- Only optional state, about 28%
- Monopolistic state funds
- 4 states
NCCI class code 8810 covers clerical office employees and is one of the lowest-rated codes in the manual, reflecting how rarely desk work produces an injury. Most in-office administrative and support tech staff are assigned to it, which is why the per-employee premium for a tech team is small.
Computer-programming and systems-design staff are typically rated under NCCI class code 8859, a low-hazard code close to the clerical rate. The combination of clerical and programming codes is what keeps a software company's workers comp rate near the bottom of any industry.
The BLS reported a total recordable injury and illness rate of roughly 1.0 case per 100 full-time-equivalent workers in the information sector, well below the private-industry average of 2.3, one of the lowest rates of any industry and the reason tech class codes rate so low.
The standard Part Two employers liability limits are $100,000 by accident each accident, $500,000 by disease policy limit, and $100,000 by disease each employee. Part One statutory benefits carry no dollar limit. Enterprise contracts sometimes require higher Part Two limits.
Texas is the only state where private workers compensation is optional for most employers. Roughly 28 percent of Texas private employers opt out, but opting out forfeits the immunity from employee injury lawsuits the system otherwise provides.
In North Dakota, Ohio, Washington, and Wyoming, workers compensation Part One must be bought from the state fund. Those funds sell only Part One, so a remote employee living in one of them needs a separate private stop-gap endorsement for the Part Two lawsuit exposure.
Common questions
about workers’ compensation for technology insurance
In almost every state, yes, the moment you have your first employee on payroll. The mandate is triggered by employees, not by an office or a certain size, so a startup with W-2 staff needs it even if everyone works from a laptop at home. A founder-only company on contractors may not owe it yet, and owners can often exclude themselves. Texas is the one state where private coverage stays optional, though opting out gives up your immunity from injury lawsuits.
Yes. A remote worker hurt in the course of doing their job, such as a repetitive-strain injury at a workstation or a fall at the home desk during working hours, is covered the same as an in-office injury. The key detail is location: that worker is generally covered under the workers comp law of the state where they live and work, so you need the coverage registered or extended to reach that state, not just the state of your headquarters.
Because coverage follows the employee. Each worker is generally covered under the statute of the state where they perform the work, so a distributed team scattered across the country owes coverage and filings in each of those states. That is how a small remote startup ends up compliant in many jurisdictions at once. An other-states endorsement helps catch new hires between renewals, and workers in monopolistic states need Part One placed with the state fund plus a stop-gap endorsement.
Because the work is low-hazard and priced on payroll by class code. Software, IT, and clerical roles are assigned some of the lowest-rated codes in the rating manual, since desk work produces far fewer and less severe injuries than a trade or a factory. The rate per employee is small as a result. It is still mandatory once you hire, and the premium rises with payroll, so a growing team pays more even though the rate stays low.
Part One pays the statutory benefits an injured worker's state owes, the medical care, wage replacement, disability, and death benefits, on a no-fault basis with no dollar limit. The state, not the policy, sets what is owed. Part Two, employers liability, covers lawsuits that fall outside the no-fault system and carries the dollar limits you select. Most claims run through Part One. Part Two matters when an injury turns into litigation, which is why some contracts ask for higher ones.
In the states that require it, going without coverage exposes you to fines, stop-work orders, and in some states criminal charges for willful non-coverage. You also lose the no-fault bargain, so an injured employee can sue you directly for the full cost of the injury, with none of the statutory caps that normally apply. Enterprise customers and coworking spaces also will not clear a vendor or tenant without proof, so skipping it can stall a deal or a lease.
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