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Iowa Workers' Comp Rate Calculator

Estimate an Iowa workers' comp premium from payroll, a rate per $100 and your experience mod. Defaults are explained under the rate field.

Regulator
Iowa Division of Workers' Compensation (Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing)
Market Type
Competitive private market
Rating Organization
NCCI
Class System
NCCI class codes
Step 1 — Your Business
About Your Iowa Business
Step 2 — Experience & Claims
Your Claims History
Total Incurred ($)
# of Claims
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Step 3 — Compare Options
Coverage Options
Your Results
Premium Estimate
Estimated Annual Premium
$0
Payroll/100 × Rate × EMR
YearEstimate
Illustrative Mod Path (3 Years)
Current Path
PEO Path

An estimate, not a quote. How this calculator works.

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Workers' comp in Iowa: what's different

Iowa runs no state fund. Employers get coverage from an insurer approved by the commissioner of insurance or from self-insurance. Responsibility is divided. The Workers' Compensation Division (WCD), now part of the Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing (DIAL), runs the claims system and decides disputes. The Iowa Insurance Division (IID) reviews rates and approves self-insurers. NCCI files advisory rates for Iowa, not just loss costs, and IID posts those filings on its website.

Who must carry coverage

Iowa Code section 85.3 puts the duty on every employer that the chapter does not specifically exclude. The statute sets no minimum headcount. Before you open for business, you need a policy or an approved release from the insurance requirement.

The carve-outs are specific:

  • Household and casual workers. Someone working in or around a private home, or doing casual work outside your trade, falls outside the law unless they earned $1,500 or more from you in the 12 months before the injury. A household member who is a spouse or relative living on the premises stays exempt.
  • Farm labor. Agricultural workers are covered only when the employer's cash payroll to non-family workers reached $2,500 in the prior calendar year. Close relatives of the farmer are exempt either way.
  • Corporate officers. Officers are covered by default. The president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer (four people at most, and not in a family farm corporation) may reject coverage in writing.
  • Owners. Proprietors, LLC members, limited liability partners, and partners are not employees. One who works in the business on a substantially full-time basis can opt in by buying a policy that names them.

A rejection or nonelection is attached to your policy. If you have no policy, it is filed with the WCD, signed in front of two disinterested witnesses. A form signed because the job required it is not enforceable.

Out-of-state firms with staff working in Iowa are treated as doing business here and fall under the WCD's jurisdiction for injuries in the state.

Where coverage comes from

Chapter 87 allows three routes:

  1. Buying a policy from a carrier the commissioner of insurance has approved.
  2. Membership in an employer group self-insurance association. The group's plan needs IID approval before it starts.
  3. Individual self-insurance. You show IID you can pay claims or post security. IID asks new applicants for audited financials, an actuarial opinion, excess insurance, and a security bond, plus a $200 fee. Renewals are due by June 1 each year.

Who sets rates

NCCI files voluntary advisory rates and assigned risk rates for the commissioner of insurance to review. IID posts a notice of each filing online. A policyholder, or a group with policyholder members, has 15 days from that posting to demand a public hearing, and NCCI then carries the burden of proof.

Insurers must follow the filings made for them, but each can seek approval of a deviation and may use a schedule rating plan within limits the commissioner sets.

On November 25, 2025, the commissioner of insurance approved NCCI's August 2025 filing, effective January 1, 2026. It lowered both voluntary and assigned risk rates by 2.5% on average, and no one asked for a hearing. NCCI's next filing, dated August 19, 2026, cuts rates by a further 2.1% on average. The commissioner approved it on October 15, 2026, effective January 1, 2027.

Experience rating

Mods come from NCCI's Experience Rating Plan Manual for Iowa. For ratings effective July 1, 2026 and later, a business qualifies once it has $11,000 or more of subject premium over the most recent 24 months of its experience period ($5,500 a year on average when more than 24 months are used). Ratings from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026 used $10,500 and $5,250.

If no insurer will write you

Iowa law requires insurers to share coverage for employers who cannot buy it in the normal market, and that pool must be run by a licensed rating organization. NCCI administers the Iowa plan (800-622-4123). To apply, an employer must have been turned down by two insurers, and if it is already insured, one of those must be its present carrier. Plan policies may carry an ARAP surcharge (Assigned Risk Adjustment Program), capped at 1.25 times modified premium.

Penalties for going uninsured

  • Felony. Willfully and knowingly running a business without insurance or a release is a class "D" felony.
  • Lawsuits without the usual defenses. Your injured employee chooses between a court case and a benefits claim before the WCD. In a lawsuit, the law presumes your negligence caused the injury, you must disprove it, and you cannot argue contributory negligence, assumption of risk, or the fellow servant rule. Both parties have a right to a jury trial.
  • Injunctions. After the WCD sends certified-mail notice, you have 15 days to comply. If you don't, the attorney general seeks a court order to stop the violation, and breaking that order is contempt of court.
  • Warning sign. An uninsured employer must post a notice telling workers it has not insured its liability. Failing to post it is a simple misdemeanor.

Your ongoing obligations

  • Report injuries. File a First Report of Injury (FROI) with the WCD within four days (Sundays and legal holidays excluded) once you know of an injury causing more than three days of temporary disability. Permanent disability or death also triggers a FROI within four days. Reports go electronically through EDI.
  • Answer demands. If the WCD demands a missing report, you get 30 days. After that, you may have to show cause why a $1,000 assessment per occurrence should not apply.
  • Pay on time. Weekly benefits are due starting on the eleventh day after the injury. Late payments carry interest, and an unreasonable denial or delay can add up to 50% of the delayed benefits.
  • Name an Iowa contact. Insurers and self-insured employers must designate someone located in Iowa to handle claims and tell the workers' compensation commissioner within 10 days of any change.
  • Proof of coverage. The WCD uses NCCI's coverage database to verify whether an employer is insured.

Worked example: how the calculator estimates premium

Premium = (payroll / 100) x rate per $100 x experience mod

This example uses the voluntary advisory rate for class 5551 (NCCI's national roofing code) in NCCI's Iowa filing approved effective January 1, 2026: $10.139 per $100 of payroll. That is an advisory rate, not your insurer's final price, since carriers may file deviations and use schedule rating. The payroll and mod are made up for illustration.

  • Annual roofing payroll (hypothetical): $320,000
  • Rate per $100 (NCCI advisory rate, approved effective 1/1/2026): $10.139
  • Experience mod (hypothetical): 0.95

The arithmetic

  1. Divide payroll by 100: $320,000 / 100 = 3,200
  2. Multiply by the rate: 3,200 x $10.139 = $32,444.80
  3. Multiply by the mod: $32,444.80 x 0.95 = $30,822.56

NCCI's filing also sets a $160 expense constant. The calculator's formula does not add it. In the assigned risk plan, the 5551 rate is $12.349, so step 2 would give $39,516.80 instead. For policies effective on or after January 1, 2027, the approved 5551 rates are $10.047 voluntary and $12.237 assigned risk.

Frequently asked questions

Is there an Iowa state fund I can buy from?

No. Employers buy from an insurer approved by the commissioner of insurance, join an approved group self-insurance association, or self-insure with IID approval. After two refusals, the NCCI-run assigned risk plan is the fallback.

Is a single employee enough to require coverage?

Iowa sets no headcount minimum. Unless a worker fits an exemption, such as household help paid under $1,500 by you in the 12 months before an injury, you need a policy or an approved release before you start operating.

Can owners and officers opt out?

Proprietors, LLC members, limited liability partners, and partners are not covered unless they buy a policy that names them, and a nonelection is attached to the policy. Corporate officers are covered automatically, but up to four (president, vice president, secretary, treasurer) may sign a written rejection.

What is the deadline for the First Report of Injury?

Four days, skipping Sundays and legal holidays, from when you learn of an injury that disables a worker for more than three days, or that causes permanent disability or death. It is filed through EDI.

Official sources

Sources accessed 2026-10-17.

This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm details with the Iowa Division of Workers' Compensation (Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing).

Reviewer: Sam Newland, CFP, Founder of Benefitra. Last updated October 17, 2026. How the calculator works. Editorial policy.