Oregon Workers' Comp Rate Calculator

Workers' comp in Oregon: what's different

Oregon runs a competitive market with a public player in it. Employers buy from a private insurer or from SAIF Corporation, an independent public corporation created by statute, or get certified to self-insure. The Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS) oversees the system: its Workers' Compensation Division (WCD) enforces coverage, and its Division of Financial Regulation (DFR) reviews rates. NCCI develops the pure premium rates, and DCBS reviews NCCI's recommendation in a public process each year.

Who must carry coverage

Hiring one subject worker makes you a subject employer under ORS 656.023. Every worker is covered unless one of roughly 30 exemptions in ORS 656.027 applies.

• Household and casual work. Domestic servants in a private home are exempt, and so is someone a homeowner hires for gardening, repair or remodeling at that home. Casual work is exempt only if its total labor cost stays below $1,198.22 in any 30-day period and it falls outside your trade or business. That threshold took effect July 1, 2026, and WCD adjusts it each July 1 in line with the state average weekly wage.
• Corporate officers. Officers who are directors and have a substantial ownership interest are exempt. Licensed construction and landscaping contractor corporations face a cap: the greater of two officers or one per 10 employees, unless every officer is in the same family.
• LLC members and partners. LLC members are generally exempt, but in an LLC with more than one member, members doing construction work on real property are subject workers. Partners are exempt unless they do that kind of construction work. Licensed contractor LLCs and partnerships get a capped exemption like the one for corporations.
• Sole proprietors are generally nonsubject. Exempt people can still be covered if you file a written election with your insurer and send a copy to DCBS.
• Independent contractors. WCD applies three tests: free from direction and control, running an independently established business, and holding any contractor's license the work requires.
• Work across state lines. An Oregon worker hurt while temporarily out of state keeps Oregon benefits. A visiting worker from another state is exempt while temporarily here only if the home-state policy covers the Oregon work and that state extends the same treatment to Oregon employers.

Where coverage comes from

WCD counts more than 300 insurers approved to write workers' comp in Oregon. SAIF is one of them. Its statutory job is to make insurance available to as many Oregon employers as inexpensively as sound insurance allows. A five-member board appointed by the Governor runs it, and state agencies are insured through SAIF.

Self-insurance, alone or as a group, requires DCBS certification and proof of qualified claims staff and the money to pay benefits promptly.

Who sets rates

DCBS calls Oregon's system competitive ratemaking. NCCI develops a pure premium rate for each of more than 500 classifications, and those rates need the approval of the Oregon insurance commissioner. DFR approves NCCI's annual loss cost and assigned risk rate filing and also approves the expense loads that voluntary insurers add.

Pure premiums fell an average of 3.3% on January 1, 2026. On September 9, 2026, DCBS proposed an average 2.1% increase effective January 1, 2027. DCBS ties the increase to Senate Bill 1519 (2026), which raises weekly time-loss benefits for lower-wage injured workers. Under the proposal, the average loaded cost (pure premium plus insurer expense and profit plus assessments) would go from 89 cents to 92 cents per $100 of payroll.

Two state charges ride on top of premium:

• Premium assessment. A percentage added to your premium that funds DCBS programs, including WCD, Oregon OSHA and the Workers' Compensation Board. It is 9.8% of premium for insured employers, unchanged since 2022, and DCBS has proposed keeping it at 9.8% in 2027.
• Workers' Benefit Fund (WBF) assessment. A cents-per-hour charge on every hour worked. The combined 2027 rate, adopted October 7, 2026, is 2.4 cents per hour: 2.2 cents for the WBF plus 0.2 cents for a new BOLI Expenses Fund. The 2026 rate is 1.8 cents. You must withhold half of it from each employee's pay, then report and pay the total to the state with payroll taxes on Form OQ.

Experience rating

SAIF's 2026 rate memo sets mod eligibility, for ratings effective July 1, 2025 and later, at $7,500 of subject premium in the latest 24 months or $3,750 of average annual subject premium. Oregon also lets you pay small medical bills yourself on accepted nondisabling claims, up to $2,600 per claim for 2027 injuries under WCD Bulletin 345, and those reimbursed costs cannot affect your mod. If a worker leasing company supplies your workers and also provides the coverage, state law still bases the premium for your exposure on your own experience rating.

If no insurer will write you

Apply to the Oregon Assigned Risk Insurance Plan, which NCCI administers. You file a special application and pay a deposit before it is processed. NCCI checks that you owe no bad debt to a past insurer, then assigns you to an authorized Oregon insurer. Under ORS 656.730 the plan spreads these employers among SAIF and the members of the rating organization, and an insurer that refuses its share loses its authority to write workers' comp. DFR selects the plan's servicing carriers, usually every three years.

Penalties for going uninsured

• First order. A civil penalty of $1,000 or twice the premium you should have paid for the uninsured period, whichever is greater.
• Continuing violations. Up to $250 more per day once the first order is final. WCD notes that a third order brings a request for a permanent court injunction.
• Personal liability. Corporate officers and directors, and LLC members and managers, are jointly and severally liable for the penalties and for claim costs.
• Claims. You owe the same benefits an insured worker would get, plus a fee for the certified claims agent who handles the claim. WCD warns that bankruptcy may not reduce this debt, and an injured employee can also sue you.

Your ongoing obligations

• Post the Notice of Compliance. Display the poster in a central spot such as a breakroom. A new one arrives when coverage starts or the insurer changes, not for a new policy number alone.
• Report injuries within five days. Send Form 801 to your insurer. First-aid-only injuries need no report, but keep a record for five years, and report on Form 801 within five days if the injury later needs medical care.
• Provide wage records. Your claims processor may ask for up to 52 weeks of the worker's wage and earnings records.
• Proof of coverage is filed with DCBS by your insurer, not by you.

Worked example: how the calculator estimates premium

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

The rate below is the NCCI pure premium for class 5551, "Roofing-All Kinds-Dr," as published by SAIF Corporation in its January 1, 2026 rate table: $5.751 per $100 of payroll, down from $6.38 in 2025. A pure premium covers only expected benefit costs, so each insurer applies its own rate level or expense factor on top of it.

• Hypothetical roofing payroll: $250,000
• Pure premium, class 5551 (effective January 1, 2026): $5.751
• Illustrative loss cost multiplier: 1.50 (not any carrier's filed figure)
• Hypothetical experience mod: 0.95

Step by step

1. Payroll in hundreds: $250,000 / 100 = 2,500
2. Rate per $100: $5.751 x 1.50 = $8.6265
3. Manual premium: 2,500 x $8.6265 = $21,566.25
4. Apply the mod: $21,566.25 x 0.95 = $20,487.94

The 9.8% premium assessment would add about $2,007.82, for roughly $22,495.76. The WBF assessment is separate and depends on hours worked: at the 2027 rate of 2.4 cents, a worker with 2,000 hours costs $48, and half of that, $24, is withheld from the worker's pay.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

• Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 656
• Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 737
• Oregon WCD, Workers' compensation insurance overview
• Oregon WCD, How to buy it
• Oregon WCD, Penalties
• Oregon WCD, Notice of Compliance poster
• Oregon WCD, Self-insurance overview
• Oregon WCD, When your worker files a claim
• Oregon WCD, Independent contractors
• Oregon WCD, Bulletin 345 (effective January 1, 2027)
• Oregon WCD, Bulletin 387, casual labor (effective July 1, 2026)
• Oregon WCD, OAR 436-070 as adopted for 2027 (Order 26-072)
• Oregon Secretary of State, Permanent Administrative Order WCD 5-2026
• Oregon DCBS, Workers' Benefit Fund assessment
• Oregon DCBS, Workers' compensation costs
• Oregon DCBS, Workers' compensation cost summary (effective January 1, 2027)
• Oregon DCBS, Pure premium rate changes
• Oregon DCBS news release, 2027 rate proposal (September 9, 2026)
• Oregon DCBS, 2026 rate notice
• Oregon DFR, presentation to the Management-Labor Advisory Committee (August 6, 2026)
• SAIF Corporation, Rate information
• SAIF Corporation, January 1, 2026 rates and minimum premiums (revised)
• SAIF Corporation, 2026/2025 pure rate comparison
• SAIF Corporation, January 1, 2026 rate memo

Sources accessed 2026-10-17.

This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm details with the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services, Workers' Compensation Division.

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