# California — Workers' compensation insurance requirements by US state: employee thresholds, who counts, and industry exceptions

For California, employee threshold is one employee; who counts toward the threshold is all employees; owner/officer inclusion or exemption is Roofers without employees are still required to carry workers' compensation insurance; issuing authority is California Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Workers' Compensation; notes is Out-of-state employers may need workers' compensation coverage if they have any employees regularly working in California, or if they enter into a contract of employment in California, recorded from its source on 2026-08-12.

- **State:** California _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_
- **Employee threshold:** one employee _(verified: appears in the quote below)_
- **Who counts toward the threshold:** all employees
- **Owner/officer inclusion or exemption:** Roofers without employees are still required to carry workers' compensation insurance.
- **Issuing authority:** California Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Workers' Compensation
- **Notes:** Out-of-state employers may need workers' compensation coverage if they have any employees regularly working in California, or if they enter into a contract of employment in California.

## What the source says

> California employers are required by law to have workers' compensation insurance, even if they have only one employee. And, if your employees get hurt or sick because of work, you are required to pay for workers' compensation benefits.

## Source

- https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/employer.htm

Last verified: 2026-08-12. Review by: 2027-02-08.
Part of [Workers' compensation insurance requirements by US state: employee thresholds, who counts, and industry exceptions](https://referencesource.org/workers-comp-coverage-thresholds-by-state/).