Michigan Workers' Comp Insurance for Light Manufacturing & Machine Shops

Michigan's threshold has two paths: a private employer must carry coverage if it regularly employs one or more workers who work 35 or more hours per week for 13 or more consecutive weeks, or if it has three or more employees at any time regardless of hours. Agricultural employers follow the 35-hour/13-week test with three or more employees, and household employers must cover domestic workers who work 35+ hours per week for 13+ weeks. All public employers must carry coverage regardless of size. See the Workers' Disability Compensation Agency's insurance requirements page.

Common codes for this work include 3632 Machine Shop; 2812 Cabinet Shop (Power Machinery); 3066 Sheet Metal Shop; 3179 Electrical Apparatus Manufacturing; 3681 Electronics / Telecom Device Manufacturing; 4299 Printing; 2501 Clothing Manufacturing; 4511 Analytical Laboratory / Assaying. Michigan maintains its own classification system (CAOM) rather than NCCI codes. The codes below are NCCI reference codes; your Michigan classification may carry a different number, and we match it during quoting.

A sole proprietor is never considered an employee of their own business, so they are not automatically covered and coverage on themselves is optional. Partners are considered employees of the partnership, corporate officers are considered employees of the corporation, and LLC manager-members are considered employees of the LLC, meaning all three groups are counted toward the coverage threshold and are covered by default unless they properly file an exclusion form. Employers can meet the coverage requirement by purchasing insurance, self-insuring, or filing a valid exclusion, and should keep exclusion paperwork current since it's specific to the individual and the entity.

Michigan's Worker's Disability Compensation Act makes it a misdemeanor for a covered employer to fail to secure required coverage, and the state can pursue both criminal prosecution and civil remedies to collect owed compensation and penalties from a noncompliant employer (MCL 418.641). An uninsured employer also loses the liability protections the Act normally provides and can be sued directly and held personally liable for a workplace injury.

Price is driven by payroll in each class code, the Michigan rates filed for those codes, your claims history (experience modification), and underwriting factors such as the specific manufacturing process or product being produced; level of machine guarding and documented lockout/tagout procedures; amount of manual materials handling versus automated processes. We compare carriers so you can see what you qualify for.

Complete one application and we compare up to 10 carriers in minutes, with the option to purchase online. A Live Certificate is included with your coverage, so proof of coverage is always live and shareable by text or email in seconds.

No — classifications are built around the specific product or process, so a machine shop, a cabinet shop, and an electronics manufacturer are each rated differently even though they're all considered light manufacturing.

Office and clerical staff working in a physically separated area away from the production floor may qualify for a standard clerical exception, which is typically rated lower than the manufacturing classification covering shop-floor work.

Payroll may need to be reported under more than one classification when a facility genuinely runs distinct processes — for example, machining and sheet-metal fabrication — with each process rated under its own applicable code.

Coverage is required once an employer has three or more employees at any time, or one or more employees working 35+ hours per week for 13 or more consecutive weeks, whichever applies first.

No. A sole proprietor is never considered an employee of their own business, so coverage on the owner is optional, though employees they hire still count toward the threshold.