It depends more on what you make than on the word "manufacturing." There is no single manufacturing class code, and rates run from roughly $1.50 per $100 of payroll for lighter operations to $6.00 or more for heavy metal, machinery, and woodworking — before the experience mod and credits. A mid-sized Florida manufacturer with about $1,000,000 in production payroll could land anywhere from roughly $18,000 to $55,000+ a year, depending on the product, the class-code mix, machine guarding, and claims history. These are general ranges to set expectations, not a quote.
Workers' comp premium isn't a flat fee — it's built from your payroll and the rate that applies to each class of work. For each class code, the carrier takes your payroll, divides by 100, and multiplies by the rate for that code. Then your experience modification factor (the "mod") adjusts the whole thing up or down based on your claims history, and the carrier applies its own credits or debits. In manufacturing, the twist is that a single plant can involve several different class codes at once, and they can differ in rate by three or four times.
Florida uses NCCI class codes, and manufacturing is spread across dozens of product-specific codes rather than one umbrella code. The rate follows the product and the process — a light food-packaging line and a metal-fabrication shop with presses and welding are worlds apart on risk, and their rates reflect it. Here's a directional sense of the spread:
| Class code (examples) | Type of operation | Typical rate per $100 payroll* |
|---|---|---|
| 2000s codes | Food / beverage processing & packaging | ~$1.50 – $3.00 |
| 4459 | Plastics goods manufacturing | ~$2.50 – $4.50 |
| 2731 / 2883 | Woodworking / furniture manufacturing | ~$3.50 – $6.00+ |
| 3632 | Machine shop NOC | ~$2.50 – $4.50 |
| 3400 | Metal stamping / fabrication | ~$3.50 – $6.00+ |
| 8018 | Warehouse / stores (product handling) | ~$2.00 – $4.00 |
| 8810 | Clerical / office staff | ~$0.10 – $0.30 |
*Illustrative general ranges for setting expectations only, before experience mod and carrier credits/debits. Class-code assignment depends on your specific product and process; actual filed rates in Florida vary by carrier and change over time. Not a quote.
The takeaway: the code is the price. A manufacturer put in the wrong — higher — code, or one whose office and warehouse payroll is buried inside the production code, can pay dramatically more than an identical shop that's coded correctly. This is the most common and most expensive mistake in manufacturing comp.
Say you run a Florida metal-fabrication shop with $1,000,000 in total annual payroll, split as $700,000 in production/fabrication (say 3400), $200,000 in warehouse and shipping (8018), and $100,000 in office/clerical (8810). At illustrative mid-range rates, the production payroll drives the overwhelming majority of the premium because its rate is many times the clerical rate. If the warehouse and clerical payroll were lumped into the fabrication code, you'd be paying the highest rate on $300,000 that doesn't belong there — potentially thousands of dollars a year in avoidable premium. Splitting payroll accurately, and documenting it so it survives the audit, is exactly what protects that money.
Florida law requires non-construction employers with four or more employees — full-time or part-time — to carry workers' compensation. Nearly every real manufacturer with a production floor is well past that threshold. Certain corporate officers can elect to be excluded within limits, but a manufacturer running a crew almost always has to carry coverage. Given the severity of manufacturing injuries — amputations, crush injuries, burns — going bare isn't a realistic option regardless of the legal minimum: a single serious machine injury can exceed years of premium.
Bettr Coverage is an independent commercial insurance agency serving Florida and the Southeast. We write manufacturing and fabrication workers' comp alongside the rest of the program — general and product liability, property and equipment (including Florida's coastal and named-storm exposures), and commercial auto — and we shop each account across multiple carriers to match your product class codes and claims history to the market that wants them. We work owner-to-owner, we check the class-code splits most agents skip, and we review your whole manufacturing program together instead of one line at a time.
Bettr Coverage shops your workers' comp, general and product liability, property and equipment, and commercial auto across multiple carriers — one agency, one relationship, the product class codes checked and the whole program reviewed together.
Get a free coverage reviewIt depends on the product — roughly $1.50/$100 of payroll for light operations up to $6.00+ for heavy metal, machinery, and woodworking, before the mod. A $1M-payroll shop can range from about $18,000 to $55,000+/yr.
There's no single one. NCCI spreads manufacturing across product-specific codes (machine shop 3632, metal stamping 3400, woodworking 2731/2883, plastics 4459, food-processing 2000s), with warehouse (8018) and clerical (8810) split out.
Yes for nearly all — Florida requires non-construction employers with four or more employees, full- or part-time, to carry it. Any real production floor is past that threshold.
Because the rate follows the product and process, plus each shop's experience mod, machine-guarding, and how cleanly production, warehouse, and clerical payroll are split.
The product class codes, payroll splits, experience mod, and safety program (machine guarding, lockout/tagout, ergonomics). Heavy machinery and a mod above 1.0 push it up; light processes, strong guarding, and clean splits pull it down.
Yes — manufacturing and fabrication workers' comp alongside GL, product liability, property and equipment, and commercial auto, shopped across multiple carriers.
For general information only. Not a quote or contract of insurance. Premium ranges and class-code rates shown are illustrative estimates for setting expectations, not filed rates, and vary by carrier, payroll, product, class code, experience mod, and underwriting; rates change over time. Class-code assignment depends on your specific product and process. Workers' compensation requirements are set by Florida law and administered by the Florida Division of Workers' Compensation — confirm current requirements with a licensed agent or the Division. Coverage subject to policy terms and carrier appetite.