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Mississippi Workers' Comp Rate Calculator

Estimate a Mississippi workers' comp premium from payroll, a rate per $100 and your experience mod. Default rates are illustrative.

Regulator
Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission
Market Type
Competitive private market
Rating Organization
NCCI
Class System
NCCI class codes
Step 1 — Your Business
About Your Mississippi 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 Mississippi: what's different

Mississippi splits the job between two agencies. The Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission (MWCC) supervises claims, approves self-insurers, receives injury reports, and can fine uninsured employers. The Mississippi Insurance Department (MID) reviews rate filings and runs the assigned risk plan. NCCI is the licensed rating organization that files loss costs and assigned risk rates for insurers. There is no state fund: an employer either buys a policy from an insurance company or gets the Commission's approval to self-insure.

Who must carry coverage

The trigger is five. The Commission says every employer with five employees regularly employed must provide coverage, and an employer with fewer than five may buy it voluntarily. The statute, Miss. Code 71-3-5, words it as five or more "workmen or operatives regularly in the same business."

Owners get several options:

  • Sole proprietors, partners, and 15% stockholders. The business can exempt any of them by written action of its governing authority, but only if that person also agrees in writing. Anyone exempted this way drops out of the five-worker count.
  • Corporate executive officers of a for-profit corporation are employees. Each can reject coverage by written notice to the insurer.
  • Partners and association members who want coverage can be added by an endorsement on the policy.

The Commission lists these groups as outside the law unless the employer covers them voluntarily: domestic and farm labor, and employees of nonprofit fraternal, charitable, religious, or cultural organizations. Federal employees and some transportation and maritime jobs fall under federal law instead. The farm exemption does not reach commercial processing of farm products.

Two rules hit trades that use outside help. Under 71-3-7, a contractor must secure compensation for a subcontractor's employees unless the subcontractor has done so. In trucking, an owner-operator must give the motor carrier proof of workers' comp, a self-insured plan, or an occupational accident policy of at least $1,000,000. Without that proof, the owner-operator and his drivers fall under the carrier's policy, and the carrier may charge them the premium.

Where coverage comes from

  • Insurance companies. An employer can buy a policy from an insurance company.
  • Individual self-insurance. The applicant files a Commission application and an audited financial statement, then goes through a hearing on finances, safety, and claim handling. Commission rules require security of at least $100,000.
  • Group self-insurance. Two or more employers in a common type of business, or with another reason to associate, can pool their liabilities. The group needs a certificate of authority from the Commission, renewed every year. The Commission also approves group rates and audits the groups.

Who sets rates

Mississippi uses a loss cost system. Under MID's loss cost filing procedures, the rating organization files advisory loss costs for the department's approval. Loss costs leave out profit and every expense except loss adjustment. Each insurer then files its own rates for approval, usually by adopting those loss costs with a loss cost multiplier. An insurer can keep its multiplier on file so each newly approved set of loss costs takes effect on schedule without a fresh filing.

NCCI filed the current set on October 28, 2025. It proposed a 7.9% average cut in voluntary loss costs and a 9.9% cut in assigned risk rates, effective March 1, 2026. MID's November 2025 filing bulletin lists the filing with a -7.9% overall change and a March 1, 2026 date. In MID's December 2025 bulletin, at least one insurer filing adopts the loss costs from NCCI circular MS-2025-05 for March 1, 2026. We did not find a separate MID approval order on MID's website, and the SERFF filing search, where individual filings are posted, did not open for us. The year before, NCCI filed a 4.6% voluntary decrease and a 6.7% assigned risk decrease for March 1, 2025.

MID's monthly bulletins for January through September 2026 show no NCCI filing for 2027.

Experience rating

The experience rating plan counts as supplementary rating information. The rating organization files it with MID for approval, along with classification codes and other rating plans. The assigned risk plan uses the Experience Rating Plan Manual as approved for use in Mississippi by the Commissioner of Insurance.

If no insurer will write you

Miss. Code 71-3-111 directs MID to provide the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Assigned Risk Plan. It is meant for employers who are entitled to insurance in good faith but cannot get it because of unusual conditions. The Commissioner of Insurance is the plan's director and may contract with licensed workers' comp insurers, or with claims and loss control service providers, to act as servicing carriers.

Behind the plan sits the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Assigned Risk Pool, a reinsurance mechanism. It spreads the plan's profit or loss across every licensed workers' comp insurer in proportion to its voluntary premium in the state. The plan follows Rule 4 of NCCI's Basic Manual, with Mississippi exceptions. The Commission tells employers to send assigned risk applications to NCCI.

Penalties for going uninsured

  • Criminal. An employer who fails to secure compensation commits a misdemeanor: a fine of up to $1,000, up to one year in jail, or both.
  • Corporate officers. The president, secretary, and treasurer face the same fine or jail term. They are also personally liable, together with the corporation, for benefits owed for injuries during the uninsured period.
  • Civil penalty. The Commission can add a civil penalty of up to $10,000, set case by case.
  • Hiding assets. Disposing of or concealing property after an injury to avoid paying benefits is a separate misdemeanor with the same fine and jail range.
  • Lawsuits. The injured worker may claim benefits or sue for damages instead. In that suit you cannot argue that a co-worker was negligent, that the worker assumed the risk, or that the worker's own negligence contributed.

When an insurer cancels, it must give you 30 days' notice. You then have 30 days from receiving that notice to file proof of new coverage, or the Commission treats it as a violation subject to the penalties above.

Your ongoing obligations

  • Proof of coverage. Your insurer files your proof of coverage through NCCI's Proof of Coverage System. Self-insurers file it in the Commission's format.
  • Notice of Coverage poster. Keep a Notice of Coverage, at least 8 1/2 by 11 inches, in a conspicuous place at your business. It must name your insurer (or say you self-insure), your claims administrator, the coverage dates, and the person who takes injury reports, plus a fraud warning.
  • Injury reports. Report on-the-job injuries and deaths to the Commission under 71-3-67, on Commission forms. The employer's report is the First Report of Injury (Form B-3 in the Commission's rules; the current printed form carries the IAIABC IA-1 label). The Commission wants a first report even without lost time when the claim involves a disability rating or serious facial disfigurement.
  • Injury log. Keep a record of every injury and show it to the Commission on request.
  • No payroll deductions. Taking any part of the premium out of an employee's pay is a misdemeanor.

Workers have their own deadline. A claim generally needs actual notice to the employer within 30 days of the injury, so make sure your poster names the right contact.

Worked example: how the calculator estimates premium

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

NCCI's Mississippi residual market reports list roofing as class 5551, Roofing-All Kinds & Drivers. MID does not post class-level loss costs on its own site; it points readers to the SERFF filing search, which we could not open. So every number below is illustrative, not a filed Mississippi loss cost or rate.

  • Hypothetical annual payroll for the roofing crew: $300,000
  • Illustrative rate: $8.50 per $100 of payroll (made up for the example)
  • Hypothetical experience mod: 1.10

Step by step

  1. Divide payroll by 100: $300,000 / 100 = 3,000 units
  2. Multiply by the rate: 3,000 x $8.50 = $25,500.00
  3. Multiply by the mod: $25,500.00 x 1.10 = $28,050.00

Your insurer's rate is its own multiplier applied to the approved loss cost for your class, so carrier quotes will differ.

Frequently asked questions

I run a roofing crew with four employees. Do I need coverage?

Under the Commission's rule, coverage is required once you have five employees regularly employed, and optional below that. Keep in mind that a general contractor you work for must secure coverage for your crew if you have not, so many will ask for proof anyway.

Is there a Mississippi state fund?

No. Coverage comes from a licensed insurer, Commission-approved individual or group self-insurance, or the assigned risk plan, which takes applications through NCCI.

Did Mississippi rates go down for 2026?

NCCI filed a 7.9% average cut in voluntary loss costs and a 9.9% cut in assigned risk rates for March 1, 2026. What you pay still depends on your insurer's multiplier, your class, and your mod.

Can an owner opt out of coverage?

Yes, in some cases. A sole proprietor, partner, or 15% stockholder can be exempted by written company action plus the person's own written consent. A for-profit corporation's executive officer can reject coverage by written notice to the insurer.

Official sources

Sources accessed 2026-10-17.

This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm details with the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission.

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