Virginia Workers' Comp Insurance for Salons, Barbershops & Spas

Virginia requires coverage once a business has more than two part-time or full-time employees; employers with two or fewer employees are generally exempt unless they choose to carry coverage voluntarily. When a general contractor uses subcontractors performing work in the same trade or business, those subcontractor employees can count toward the general contractor's total, so it's possible to trip the threshold through subcontracted labor alone. See the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission's employer FAQs.

Common codes for this work include 9586 Barber Shop / Beauty Salon; 8810 Clerical Office Employees; 8017 Retail Store (General). Virginia uses NCCI class codes, so the codes below are the ones carriers typically assign to this work in Virginia.

A sole proprietor with no employees is exempt from mandatory coverage and can add it voluntarily. Corporate officers and LLC managers are classified as employees and cannot be automatically excluded, but they can affirmatively reject coverage for themselves by filing a Rejection of Coverage (Form 16A) with both the Commission and the insurer, as long as valid coverage otherwise exists for the business. A single-member LLC's member isn't automatically covered unless they elect coverage with their insurer; for multi-member LLCs, a member who performs compensated work separate from their ownership duties can count toward the coverage threshold. Non-compensated officers of 501(c)(3) nonprofits and property owners' associations are exempt.

An employer that fails to maintain required coverage faces a civil penalty of up to $250 per day of noncompliance, capped at $50,000, and separately can face enhanced penalties of $500 to $5,000 per instance for certain reporting violations (Va. Code §§ 65.2-805, 65.2-803.1). A noncompliant employer also becomes directly liable to an injured employee for either statutory workers' comp benefits or a personal injury judgment, and loses standard negligence defenses in that lawsuit. The Commission issues written notice and an opportunity to comply before assessing penalties.

Price is driven by payroll in each class code, the Virginia rates filed for those codes, your claims history (experience modification), and underwriting factors such as total employee payroll, separate from any independent booth renters; mix of chemical services (color, perms) versus cuts and styling only; whether the salon operates a separate retail product counter. We compare carriers so you can see what you qualify for.

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Not if they're properly classified as independent contractors rather than employees, but that classification needs to be genuine and well-documented, since misclassifying someone who's functionally an employee can create coverage and compliance problems.

It can — if a meaningful, separately tracked retail counter is part of the business, that portion of payroll may be considered under a retail store classification rather than the personal-care classification.

Generally yes, since the barbershop, beauty parlor, and hair-styling salon classification is built to cover related personal-care services together rather than splitting out each specialty separately.

Coverage is required once an employer has more than two part-time or full-time employees; businesses with two or fewer are generally exempt unless they choose coverage voluntarily.

Yes, by filing a Rejection of Coverage (Form 16A) with the Workers' Compensation Commission and the insurer, but only if the business otherwise has valid coverage in place.