I was wondering how this effecting sign shops around the country. I just recieved my new policey and it went from $4000. a year to $11000. for the renewal. Needless to say we are now drafting a letter to all of our customers that we will no longer be able to do any installations for them in the future. I am interested to hear from people especially in Florida and see how this is effecting there business.
Posted by bill riedel (Member # 607) on :
In N.J. you have to have it if you are incorporated. If you have a claim and do not get a workmans compensation lawyer, forget about it. They will put you off until you no longer can claim bedcause of the limited time they give to make the claim. They did it to me. The only help is an honest agent to tell you what realistic catagory you can be insured under. The wrong category will soon put you out of business.
Posted by Kathy Joiner (Member # 1814) on :
That certainly is quite an increase. Especially if you do not do electrical signs. Like bill said, check with your agent to make certain he didn't place you in the wrong classification. Also check to see if the proper experience rating was given by the state. Personally I feel that this is very high unless you are erecting very large signs and doing a lot of work on scafolding or lifts.
Your actual payments are figured on payroll amounts, check to see if there was a mistake there.
[ March 28, 2003, 06:13 PM: Message edited by: Kathy Joiner ]
Posted by Jean Shimp (Member # 198) on :
We have to run our employees through a labor pool or payroll service to get work comp insurance. No one will write a policy for our company because we have less than 5 employees. The best rate I got is rate plus 40%. I was paying over 60%. That's why we don't have employees unless we get to the point of burn out.
Posted by Laura Butler (Member # 1830) on :
I was facing this recently and found out that if your employees have worked less than 35 hrs in the last 15 weeks that I don't have to have WC. Besides my usband and myself, I have 1 full-time employee but had to cut his hours since Dec. I calculated his hours and they average like 28 in the last 15 weeks. So I am ok for a while. He is now working 40 hrs again.
Posted by Amy Brown (Member # 1963) on :
It's just my husband (part-time) and myself here. I made phone call after phone call and was told by several different people I am a sole proprietor non-construction and I am automatically exempt. However, Cheryl Lucas in Cape Coral does practically the same stuff as me and they told her she has to file for exemption every year even as a sole proprietor. I guess she was class construction???????
I'll never understand government or politics so I just take what I'm told and move on. Guess I'm a lover not a fighter!!
Like Kathy said, that increase seems ridiculous. How many employees is that covering? Maybe you should do like Jean Shimp and Matt Broadus in Jacksonville and use a labor company. Who knows? Good luck.
Posted by Richard Girard (Member # 371) on :
Hey guess what!!! My wife tells me that she was wrong in her first telling me that it will now be $11000.00 for the year. That's how much they want down the total is $17000.00. Last night I had dinner with my accountant and we are brain storming on what we can do. I'll let you know what we come up with. Amy be careful the new law that was pasted last July in Florida states that if you are a sole proprietor and are claiming exempt you can no longer work on a job that is a total of $250000. My wife and I are exempt and refile each year as well. We have 4 employees that go on the jobsites. Laura in Fla it doesn't matter the hours, you even have to cover contract labor here. Jean we where with an employee service but they desided that they didn't have enough employees and a large enough payroll. Kathy that is really quite an unbelievable increase but after doing some research into this for the last week I am being told that I am not the only one in Florida going through this right now. This increase also puts us higher that my next door neighbor who is an Electrcian. 5% of our business is installation the rest is in shop and of that 5% 4% is installing such things as window lettering and ADA signs inside of buildings. Florida I am learning is the second highest in tha nation on workers comp I'd sure hate to live in the one that's the highest. I'll let you'll know whats happening.
Posted by Amy Brown (Member # 1963) on :
Hi Richard,
The new law is why I started making the calls in the first place. I called multiple times and always got the same answer. This is straight from the Workers Comp people in the Orlando office. I mentioned this new law and they still said the same thing. Beats me? I was told if I filed it would be a waste of my time and theirs because it's automatic. Maybe because we don't have employess???
We don't really do many installs anyway. Most of my work goes out-of-state. In the surrounding cities and county I live in the sign shop must pull the permit. The customer cannot do it. Most of my customers decided they would rather not have a sign than pay for pulling a permit.
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