Which CSLB contractors do not have to carry workers' comp?
Until 1 January 2028, a licensee with no employees that holds no C-8, C-20, C-22, C-39 or C-61/D-49 classification can file CSLB's exemption instead of a policy. From then, only a joint venture with no employees can.
Before and after 1 January 2028
| Who | Until 1 January 2028 | From 1 January 2028 |
|---|---|---|
| Can file the exemption instead of a policy | Under section 7125(b), a licensee with no employees that does not hold a C-8, C-20, C-22, C-39 or C-61/D-49 license. Under section 7125(c), a licensee organized as a joint venture that has no employees. | Under the new section 7125(b), a licensee organized as a joint venture that has no employees. |
| Needs neither a policy nor the exemption | A license while it is inactive | A license while it is inactive |
| Needs a certificate of workers' compensation insurance, or a certification of self-insurance, on file with CSLB at all times | Every other license | Every other license |
Where this comes from
The table is Business and Professions Code section 7125 as it read on 28 September 2026. The section in force today is repealed on 1 January 2028, unless a later law changes that date, and a second version, amended by Senate Bill 1455 in 2024, takes effect that day and keeps the exemption for joint ventures with no employees alone.
CSLB's workers' compensation page says "You cannot file an Exemption from Workers' Compensation form if any of the following conditions exist", and lists three: you employ anyone in a manner that is subject to California workers' compensation laws, your license is qualified by a Responsible Managing Employee, or you hold the C-8 concrete, C-20 warm-air heating, ventilating and air-conditioning, C-22 asbestos abatement, C-39 roofing or C-61/D-49 tree service classification. It says all active contractors in those five classifications "are required to carry workers' compensation insurance or a valid Certification of Self-Insurance, whether or not they have employees."
For an out-of-state licensee that holds one of those five classifications or has a Responsible Managing Employee, and whose employees do not reside in California, CSLB's page offers exemption form 13L-50, sent with its certificate of insurance from its home-state workers' compensation insurance carrier. CSLB's page also says that upon employing anyone in a manner that is subject to the workers' compensation laws of California, the exemption on file is no longer valid, and proof of workers' compensation insurance must reach CSLB's headquarters within 90 days of the hire.
How an exempt license shows in CSLB's data
In CSLB's lists of contractors by classification, an exempt license has the coverage type Exempt, with no insurer, policy number or expiration date. The lists are free and give every license's coverage type, so they show which licenses in a class are exempt; how to download them is on how to find California contractors whose workers' comp is expiring. The phrase sole owner exemption, which is not CSLB's own, is explained in the glossary.
This site's weekly file of expiring policies carries only licenses of coverage type Workers' Compensation Insurance, so no exempt license is in it. It also leaves out sole owners, and any license whose business name reads as a person's name unless CSLB lists it as a corporation or a limited liability company.