On September 1, 2025, California’s advisory workers’ compensation pure premium rates rose 8.7% — the first advisory increase in ten years after a long slide in charged rates. Insurers still file their own prices. The benchmark is what underwriters read before they price a carpentry or concrete file.
The WCIRB’s later system report put the 2025 average charged rate at $1.56 per $100 of payroll, the lowest in more than 50 years, even as the accident-year combined ratio climbed above 120%. Low charged rates and rising claim costs do not share a house for long. Cumulative trauma frequency, medical-legal spend, and loss-adjustment expense were already the warning lights.
If your policy renewed around September 1, 2025, the class-code and dual-wage work mattered more than the headline 8.7%. A helper coded on the wrong side of the wage line costs more than the advisory bump.
If this is on your renewal, call the office at (619) 420-8600 or start a quote. We will tell you what the market will actually write.
Sources: WCIRB 2026 State of the System; Business Insurance on California comp.