For Bay Area workers comp insurance, in both the San Francisco and San Jose areas the typical electrician, plumber and equipment operator is paid above California's wage line for that trade, while carpenters, drywall installers and painters sit below theirs. So a Bay Area crew's payroll often lands on both sides of the split. The page covers the counties from Marin to San Benito, with ZIP codes by city.
California sets the workers comp rules statewide: coverage once a business has one employee, a no-employee exemption for most contractor license classes that ends on January 1, 2028 unless the rule changes, and wage-split classifications for several construction trades, whose lines were reset for policies starting on or after September 1, 2026. What the Bay Area changes is the pay. The federal wage survey treats the region as two metro areas, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, so the table shows each trade's median in both beside California's line.
| Trade or Role | Median Hourly Pay | Wage Line for the Classification | Where Typical Pay Sits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electricians | $44.63 | $40.00 | At or above the line |
| Plumbers and pipefitters | $37.44 | $35.00 | At or above the line |
| Carpenters | $42.89 | $46.00 | Below the line |
| Drywall installers | $39.50 | $45.00 | Below the line |
| Painters | $30.58 | $36.00 | Below the line |
| Cement masons | $36.53 | $36.00 | At or above the line |
| Equipment operators (excavation) | $59.97 | $45.00 | At or above the line |
| Construction laborers | $34.91 | No wage split | — |
| Restaurant cooks | $22.13 | No wage split | — |
| Servers | $18.69 | No wage split | — |
| Bartenders | $19.07 | No wage split | — |
Want your own crew's pay read against these lines? A broker can review it with your quote request.
| Trade or Role | Median Hourly Pay | Wage Line for the Classification | Where Typical Pay Sits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electricians | $43.77 | $40.00 | At or above the line |
| Plumbers and pipefitters | $51.71 | $35.00 | At or above the line |
| Carpenters | $38.55 | $46.00 | Below the line |
| Drywall installers | $38.19 | $45.00 | Below the line |
| Painters | $29.79 | $36.00 | Below the line |
| Cement masons | $36.31 | $36.00 | At or above the line |
| Equipment operators (excavation) | $59.78 | $45.00 | At or above the line |
| Construction laborers | $32.92 | No wage split | — |
| Restaurant cooks | $22.68 | No wage split | — |
| Servers | $20.15 | No wage split | — |
| Bartenders | $20.32 | No wage split | — |
The two areas tell the same story. Electricians and plumbers have medians above their lines in both, and San Jose's plumbing median sits well above the San Francisco side's. Equipment operators sit far above the excavation line, and cement masons sit just above the concrete line. Carpenters, drywall installers and painters sit below their lines in both areas. For a Bay Area contractor, much of a journey-level electrical or plumbing payroll can end up in the higher-wage classification, where the rate per dollar of payroll is usually lower, while a framing or painting crew stays mostly in the lower-wage one. Each person's regular hourly rate, actual duties and the carrier's determination decide it; the published pairs are on California workers comp classifications by trade.
Restaurant classifications aren't split by wage, so higher local kitchen and dining room pay carries straight into the payroll that sets a restaurant's premium. San Jose's servers and bartenders have higher medians than San Francisco's, and cooks earn about the same in both. The guide to kitchen and server workers comp explains how tips, meals and each role are reported.
The San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont area covers San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa and Marin counties; the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area covers Santa Clara County, with San Benito County as an outlying county. The list includes Oakland, Berkeley, Fremont and Hayward in the East Bay, Walnut Creek and Concord in Contra Costa County, San Mateo and Redwood City on the Peninsula, San Rafael in Marin, and San Jose, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Mountain View and Palo Alto in the South Bay. Each city's ZIP codes, taken from Census ZIP code areas, appear below under its county.
Transit and utility work leads the public construction here. VTA's BART Silicon Valley Phase II extension through downtown San Jose to Santa Clara is under construction, with tunnel and station work that leans on equipment operators, laborers and concrete crews. In San Francisco's Bayview, the SFPUC is building new biosolids digesters at the Southeast Treatment Plant, and Caltrain finished electrifying its San Francisco to San Jose line. Jobs of this size often stack several tiers of subcontractors, so a general contractor may want a subcontractor insurance checklist for GCs in hand before anyone mobilizes.
Restaurant activity clusters along the water and in the downtowns: Fisherman's Wharf and PIER 39 in San Francisco, Jack London Square on the Oakland waterfront, and the San Pedro Square Market food hall in downtown San Jose. Each is named here only as local context, linked to its official source below; this site has no tie to any of them.
Illustrative scenario
A plumbing contractor in Santa Clara County employs five journey-level plumbers and two apprentices. Like the San Jose-area median, the five plumbers are paid above California's plumbing line, and the two apprentices are paid below it. With hourly records for each person, most of the payroll may go to the higher-wage plumbing classification, with the apprentices' hours on the lower-wage side; the carrier makes that call. Move the same shop to Fresno, where the typical plumber earns below the line, and the larger share of payroll could fall on the lower-wage side instead.
The trades whose Bay Area pay sits above their lines have their own California pages: California plumber workers comp, workers comp for electricians in California and California excavation workers comp insurance. Trades that sit below their lines here include California drywall workers comp insurance and California painter workers comp. Restaurants can start with workers comp for restaurants in California.
The statewide page is California workers comp for contractors and restaurants. Other metro pages in the state: Sacramento contractor workers comp, Fresno restaurant workers comp, workers comp in Los Angeles, Orange County workers comp insurance, Inland Empire workers comp insurance and San Diego contractor workers comp. We can place through State Fund as well as national carriers, subject to underwriting. To request a workers comp quote for contractors, send each worker's trade and hourly pay.
Send your trade, state and payroll, and a broker reviews the request. If you would rather talk first, leave a number.
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The federal median for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area sits well above the plumbing line, and higher than the San Francisco-area median. A typical journey-level plumber in the South Bay may therefore land on the higher-wage side, and apprentices paid under the line on the lower-wage side. The carrier makes the final determination.
The federal government splits the region into two metro areas: San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, which covers San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa and Marin counties, and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, which covers Santa Clara and San Benito counties. Wage figures are published for each, so the table shows both and you can read the side where most of your crew works.
Less often, going by the medians. In both Bay Area wage areas, painters and drywall installers sit below their California lines while electricians sit above theirs. A contractor running mixed crews may have payroll on both sides of several splits, so hourly records by person matter more than a crew average.
Yes, it can happen. Payments to a sub who carries no workers comp of its own may be added to the general contractor's audited payroll, and an unlicensed worker doing jobs that need a contractor license is presumed to be on your payroll under Labor Code 2750.5. Collecting current certificates from every tier before work starts helps keep those charges off the audit.
6 official sources
Reviewed by David Gleason, Principal, on .
Next Level Experience. Insurance Done Right.
Bay Area workers comp, read against two sets of local trade wages.
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