You better make sure…

In most states, the contractors are liable for workers’ comp benefits to an injured employee of an uninsured subcontractor.

Although the upper-tier contractor’s work comp policy will respond to such a claim –

The insurance carrier will retroactively adjust the insured contractor’s premium to reflect this increased exposure.

Normally, this is done by adding the uninsured subcontractor’s payrolls for that project to the insured contractor’s premium at the year-end audit.

The auditor can automatically add those payrolls to the contractor’s premium base.

So, contractors should be diligent about requiring certificates of insurance from all subcontractors –

And requiring updated certs when the policies listed on the certificate expire.