{"id":687,"date":"2019-08-12T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.collinginsurance.com\/blog\/?p=687"},"modified":"2019-08-05T16:21:56","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T16:21:56","slug":"is-workers-comp-required-for-self-employed-or-independent-contractors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.collinginsurance.com\/blog\/is-workers-comp-required-for-self-employed-or-independent-contractors\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Workers Comp Required For Self-Employed or Independent Contractors?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lakewood, CO, like many cities, towns, and states across America is seeing a surge in the numbers of companies working with independent contractors, as well as a surge in the number of people running a small business, being self-employed, and working as an independent contractor due to the shift toward the gig economy. Whether you are a small or large company, an Uber driver or a carpenter, it can be confusing trying to figure out where you understand without talking with your Colling Insurance Services, Inc. Agent. Here&rsquo;s some information to give you the basics.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Is Workers Compensation Required For Self-Employed or Independent Contractors?&nbsp;<\/h3>\n<p>The State of Colorado requires all employers to carry workers&rsquo; compensation insurance, with very few exceptions. &nbsp;You are required to carry workers comp if you:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Employ any workers in Colorado, even part-time.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Hire workers, even if you don&rsquo;t consider them employees. &nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are common law guidelines to help you distinguish employees from independent contractors, but Colorado has a strict workers compensation system and is firm about independent contractors and subcontractors being considered employees unless they don&rsquo;t qualify under specific exceptions in Colorado state law.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Here are the few exceptions: &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Corporate officers and members of an LLC &ndash; <\/strong>If you own at least 10% of the company you can opt-out of coverage if the rejection is done in writing, otherwise, Colorado includes you in coverage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sole proprietors and partners &#8212; <\/strong>You have the option to include yourself but are excluded from required coverage.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Maintenance and domestic workers: <\/strong>Some maintenance and domestic workers may not need to be covered by the law if they only perform work on a part-time, limited basis for a homeowner.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Do Self-Employed and Independent Contractors Need To Buy Their Own Workers Comp?&nbsp;<\/h3>\n<p>While workers&rsquo; compensation insurance is not required in Lakewood, CO, it is a good idea for self-employed and independent contractors to provide coverage for themselves, as the chance of injury still exists for entrepreneurs. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Whether you are an SMB or a large corporation, an independent contractor or self-employed, if you have questions about your worker&#8217;s comp needs, give the insurance experts at Colling Insurance Services, Inc. a call or come by our office for answers today.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lakewood, CO, like many cities, towns, and states across America is seeing a surge in the numbers of companies working with independent contractors, as well as a surge in the number of people running a small business, being self-employed, and working as an independent contractor due to the shift toward the gig economy. Whether you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[470,514,516],"class_list":["post-687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commercial-insurance","tag-colling-insurance-services","tag-inc","tag-lakewood-co"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.collinginsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.collinginsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.collinginsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.collinginsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.collinginsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.collinginsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":688,"href":"https:\/\/www.collinginsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687\/revisions\/688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.collinginsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.collinginsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.collinginsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}