Arizona plumbing contractors license under C-37 Plumbing or the residential R-37 Plumbing, Including Solar class, but neither license sets the workers comp classification. When you control a plumbing sub's work, Arizona Revised Statutes 23-902 can make its workers yours, and a carrier can charge premium for those workers only after its audit sets out written findings.
Two groups of people decide whose payroll lands on an Arizona plumbing policy: the subs who trench, rough in or set fixtures for you, and the owners who still turn wrenches. The license from the Registrar of Contractors (ROC) is a separate matter, and it settles neither question.
| Rule | What It Means for a Plumbing Contractor | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory employer | When you keep supervision or control over a sub's work and that work is part of your plumbing business, the sub and its workers can be treated as your employees. | Arizona Revised Statutes 23-902 |
| Written audit findings | Before a carrier charges premium on workers it treats as yours under that rule, the audit has to state its findings in writing. | Arizona Revised Statutes 23-961 |
| Sole proprietor waiver | A one-person plumber working for you as an independent contractor may waive coverage on a waiver signed and dated by that plumber and by your carrier. | Arizona Revised Statutes 23-961 |
| Working owners | An LLC member or shareholder who works in the business and owns under 50% is an employee. At 50% or more, the owner is included only by a written election the carrier accepts by endorsement. | Arizona Revised Statutes 23-901 |
| Employee rejection | An employee may reject coverage, but only in writing and before an injury. | Arizona Revised Statutes 23-906 |
| License class | C-37 Plumbing for commercial work and R-37 Plumbing, Including Solar for residential work. A license class is not a workers comp class code. | Arizona Administrative Code R4-9-102 and R4-9-103 |
Partners who work in the business, and sole proprietors, get coverage through the same kind of accepted election, and a covered owner's assumed wage is at least $600 a month. Any owner's place on the policy is something to work out with the carrier. The Arizona statutory employer rule page sets these rules out for every trade.
Arizona plumbing payroll is rated under NCCI's system, but no official Arizona class list is open to the public, and this site prints none. Your carrier picks the classification after looking at what your plumbers actually do, whether that's service calls, new homes, commercial tenant work or underground lines. California's wage-split plumbing pair means nothing here.
A plumbing license tells the Registrar what you may contract for. It doesn't tell a carrier how to rate your payroll. See how each state publishes its lists on the workers comp classification codes page.
Illustrative scenario
Illustrative only. A plumbing contractor holding R-37 Plumbing, Including Solar takes a tract of new homes and hires a two-person crew to rough in half the lots. Its superintendent sets the schedule and walks every top-out. The sub carries no workers comp. Because the contractor keeps control and rough-in is plumbing, Arizona can treat both of the sub's workers as the contractor's employees, and the carrier would state that finding in writing at audit before charging for them. The test turns on rough-in being part of the contractor's own plumbing trade, and Nevada answers the same question with a different rule that doesn't ask about control.
Checking a Sub's Certificate Only at Underground
Plumbing jobs run in phases, and a sub hired for underground may still be on site for top-out and trim months later. A certificate checked at the first phase can lapse before the last one, and the sub's workers may then be treated as yours for the uncovered stretch. Ask for a current certificate at each phase and file the copies by job. The uninsured sub charges guide shows what an auditor looks for.
In Arizona, workers comp is about injuries to the people on your payroll. A kitchen flooded by a failed fitting or a wreck in a service truck typically falls to general liability, commercial auto or a contractor bond instead. Shops with jobs across the state line can compare Nevada plumbing industrial insurance, and the plumbing workers comp insurance page sets the trade out across all three states.
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No. C-37 Plumbing and R-37 Plumbing, Including Solar come from the Registrar of Contractors and govern what you may contract for. Workers comp classification is separate: Arizona uses NCCI classifications, and the carrier assigns them from the work your plumbers actually do. We don't assign or confirm codes.
You can be. If you keep supervision or control over the sub's work and rough-in is part of your plumbing business, Arizona Revised Statutes 23-902 lets those workers be treated as yours. The carrier can't charge premium on them until its audit findings are written down, so a current certificate from the sub is the simplest protection.
Arizona lets a sole proprietor working for you as an independent contractor waive coverage under Arizona Revised Statutes 23-961. The waiver counts only when both that plumber and your carrier sign and date it. It is the sole proprietor's own waiver and says nothing about anyone that plumber hires.
Not automatically. A working member who owns 50% or more counts as an employee only if a written election is made and the carrier agrees to it by endorsement, which is the carrier's call. You each sit at that line. Ask the carrier how it handles the election before the policy starts, and note that a covered owner's assumed wage is at least $600 a month.
The residential R-37 Plumbing, Including Solar license names solar in its title, but that is licensing, not classification. The carrier classifies payroll from the work each person does, so describe any solar, rooftop or water heater work on the application instead of assuming it rides with the rest of your plumbing payroll.
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Reviewed by David Gleason, Principal, on .
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Arizona plumbing workers comp, from rough-in subs to owner elections.
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