Arizona masons license under C-31 Masonry. Block, brick and stone crews brought in as subs can be treated as your employees for workers comp when you keep supervision or control and laying it is part of your own trade. Arizona also bars a carrier from charging premium on those workers until it has put its audit findings in writing.
Masonry crews tend to be small and often subbed: a veneer setter for the monuments, a block crew for a run of yard walls. Arizona Revised Statutes 23-902 reaches those arrangements. If laying the wall is part of your business and you direct how it goes up, the sub and its helpers may count as your employees. Beyond masonry, the Arizona contractor workers comp rules apply the same test to every trade.
| Rule | What It Means for a Mason | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Subs as employees | A block, brick or stone sub and its helpers may count as yours when you keep supervision or control and the work is part of your masonry trade. | Arizona Revised Statutes 23-902 |
| Independent contractor test | The statute sets a test for independent status, and a written agreement only raises a presumption the job facts can rebut. | Arizona Revised Statutes 23-902 |
| Waiver for a mason working alone | Signed and dated by the sole proprietor and by your carrier. It is the proprietor's own waiver; anyone working for him is a separate question. | Arizona Revised Statutes 23-961 |
| Premium on a sub's workers | Needs written audit findings before the carrier charges it. | Arizona Revised Statutes 23-961 |
| Members and shareholders | Working owners below 50% are employees; at 50% or more, only on written acceptance by endorsement, at the carrier's discretion. | Arizona Revised Statutes 23-901 |
| Partners and sole proprietors | Come in the same way as owners at or above the line, with an assumed wage of at least $600 a month. | Arizona Revised Statutes 23-901 |
| Employee rejection | A tender or mason may reject coverage in writing, before any injury. | Arizona Revised Statutes 23-906 |
| License class | C-31 Masonry is a license category, not a workers comp class code. | Arizona Administrative Code R4-9-102 |
Plenty of masonry firms are family partnerships. Adding a partner to the policy is a decision to settle with the carrier before the term starts.
Arizona masonry payroll goes through NCCI's classification system. Because no official public Arizona list turned up, this site prints no Arizona codes; the carrier picks the classification by looking at the walls your crews build, whether structural block, brick veneer, stone, or yard and retaining walls. The two wage-split masonry codes California uses don't apply here. Which states this site does list is on the workers comp class code lookup. If you already hold an Arizona policy, its declarations page lists the classifications in use; we don't assign or confirm codes.
Illustrative scenario
Illustrative only. A C-31 Masonry contractor building block yard walls for a Tucson subdivision brings in a stone setter for the veneer on the entry monuments. The setter is a sole proprietor and signed a waiver bearing the contractor's carrier's signature and date as well, but he arrives with a helper. The contractor's superintendent lays out the pattern and checks each course, and veneer is masonry work, so the helper may be treated as the contractor's employee. At audit, the carrier would have to set out its findings in writing before charging premium on the helper's pay.
There is no carrier-signed waiver step in Nevada; Nevada masonry workers compensation shows how its principal contractor rule decides the same job.
Assuming the Waiver Reaches the Helper
A sole proprietor waiver is signed by the stone or block setter for himself. A helper the setter brings along signed nothing, and under the statutory employer rule that helper may be counted as your employee. Ask every sole proprietor sub whether anyone else will be on the wall, and collect a certificate when someone is.
Workers comp is for a mason's or tender's injury. A wall that leans a season after the job, a pallet of block dropped through a client's garage door or a flatbed accident usually sits with general liability, commercial auto or a bond. Compare all three states on workers comp for masons, and masons who build garden walls for landscape jobs can see Arizona landscaping workers compensation.
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Possibly not, if he signs a sole proprietor waiver that your carrier also signs and dates under Arizona Revised Statutes 23-961. Without one, a mason you direct on work that is part of your trade may be treated as your employee. Any helper he brings is a separate question.
It may, if Arizona's statutory employer or independent contractor rules make that crew yours. Before any charge, the carrier owes you written audit findings. Ask for the findings, then answer them with the crew's certificate, its contract and who directed the work.
No. It is the Registrar of Contractors category that lets you contract for masonry. Your workers comp classification is an NCCI matter, decided by the carrier from what your crews lay. This site doesn't publish Arizona codes or assign one.
Working partners come under Arizona workers comp the way majority owners do: by written acceptance by endorsement, at the carrier's discretion. For an owner covered that way, the statute assumes monthly wages of at least $600. Decide it with the carrier, knowing what staying off means if one of you is hurt on a wall.
A statewide average decrease of 0.2% was proposed for January 1, 2027 in a filing dated July 28, 2026, and it remains a proposal until the state acts. Your masonry premium still depends on your classifications, payroll, wall work and claims, so your renewal may not track the average.
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Reviewed by David Gleason, Principal, on .
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Arizona masonry workers comp, from veneer subs to written audit findings.
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