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DIR Announces 2026 California Workers' Comp User Funding Assessment Rates

Oakland, CA -- The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) has issued the 2026 assessments that workers’ compensation insurers are required to collect from policyholders to cover the budget of the state Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) and five related programs set up by state lawmakers. Insurers should apply the following rates against their policyholders’ estimated annual assessable premium for policies incepting January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026: 

State law also requires insurers to advance the money on behalf of their policyholders (the first installment is due on or before Tuesday, January 1, 2026; the balance is due on or before Wednesday, April 1, 2026), then recoup the funds via surcharges and assessments on all workers’ compensation policies with 2026 inception dates. Assessment methodologies are noted in a DIR memo issued this week. The DIR memo to insurers notes that for single carriers that were not part of an insurer group that reported data to the WCIRB on an individual company basis for 2024, “Total California Direct Written Premium for assessment purposes is the amount reported for calendar year 2024 to the WCIRB, which reflects the premiums charged to policyholders with the exception that it excludes the impact of deductible credits, retrospective rating adjustments, and policyholder dividends.” For insurers that were part of an insurer reporting group that reported data to the WCIRB for 2024, “Total California Direct Written Premium for assessment purposes has been determined as the product of (a) the total 2024 written premium reported to the WCIRB on the aforementioned basis and (b) the ratio of your company’s 2024 California written premium as reported in the 2024 Statutory Annual Statement (these amounts include the effect of deductible credits and retrospective rating adjustments) to the total 2024 Statutory Annual Statement of California written premium reported for your insurer group as a whole.”

To cover their share of the 2026 assessments, self-insured and California legally uninsured employers must apply the following rates against the total amount of workers’ compensation indemnity they paid:  

More details for insurers are in the memo that DIR posted under “What’s New” at https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/. The state is mailing the memos along with invoices for each company’s share of the assessments and surcharges to California workers’ comp insurers, self-insured employers and legally uninsured employers. Anyone with questions about the 2026 surcharges and assessments may email them to DIRDWC_Assessment@dir.ca.gov.  

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