California Dual-Wage Break-Even by Trade: Where a Raise Pays for Itself

Aug 9

6 min read

Updated: Sep 7

Quick answer

Raising an employee up to the dual-wage threshold lowers your total cost per hour — wage plus workers compensation — but only if they were already close enough to the line. How close is close enough varies enormously by trade: $2.77 an hour in carpentry, $2.38 in roofing, but only 62 cents in electrical wiring.

The rule of thumb most brokers use — the bigger the percentage gap between the two codes, the more the raise is worth — is wrong. Glaziers have a 124% gap and a $1.67 window. Roofing has a 72% gap and a $2.38 window. What matters is the absolute spread in pure premium rate multiplied by the threshold, not the ratio between the codes.

Will we write it? Tell us the operation, the state, and roughly where the mod sits — we'll come back within one business day with a straight answer: yes, no, or what we'd need to see. No ACORD, no loss runs, no obligation. Agents and business owners both welcome. Run it past us here.

All sixteen dual-wage trades. Rates and thresholds are WCIRB approved figures effective September 1, 2026, verified against the WCIRB Classification Search on August 9, 2026 by CPR Business Solutions.

Break-even wage by trade — all sixteen

For each trade: the two class codes, the approved pure premium rates per $100 of payroll effective 9/1/2026, the new threshold, and the break-even wage — the point below the threshold at which raising an employee to the threshold stops paying for itself. Break-even shown at a 1.00 experience mod. Sorted by window, widest first.

Trade	Codes	Low	High	Threshold	Break-even	Window
Carpentry	5403 / 5432	$12.075	$5.321	$46.00	$43.23	$2.77
Steel framing	5632 / 5633	$12.075	$5.321	$46.00	$43.23	$2.77
Roofing	5552 / 5553	$20.827	$12.112	$33.00	$30.62	$2.38
Glaziers	5467 / 5470	$7.514	$3.349	$43.00	$41.33	$1.67
Masonry	5027 / 5028	$9.332	$4.928	$37.00	$35.51	$1.49
Sewer	6307 / 6308	$7.451	$4.117	$45.00	$43.60	$1.40
Wallboard	5446 / 5447	$6.233	$3.249	$45.00	$43.74	$1.26
Painting	5474(1) / 5482(1)	$8.509	$4.778	$36.00	$34.76	$1.24
Concrete	5201 / 5205	$8.245	$4.748	$36.00	$34.84	$1.16
Plumbing	5183(1) / 5187(1)	$5.716	$2.732	$35.00	$34.01	$0.99
Sprinklers	5185 / 5186	$5.190	$2.363	$36.00	$35.03	$0.97
Stucco	5484 / 5485	$8.447	$6.452	$42.00	$41.23	$0.77
Sheet metal	5538(1) / 5542(1)	$5.871	$3.674	$37.00	$36.23	$0.77
Earthwork	6218(1) / 6220(1)	$5.386	$3.607	$45.00	$44.24	$0.76
Mains	6315 / 6316	$4.918	$3.147	$45.00	$44.24	$0.76
Electrical	5190 / 5140	$3.729	$2.109	$40.00	$39.38	$0.62

Window is threshold minus break-even: how far below the line an employee can currently sit and still cost you less, all-in, once you raise them to the threshold. Trade names are shortened for the table. Sewer is sewer construction 6307/6308. Stucco is plastering or stucco work 5484/5485. Earthwork is excavation 6218(1)/6220(1), and grading land and land leveling carry the same rates. Mains covers both water mains 6315(1)/6316(1) and gas mains 6315(2)/6316(2). The full phraseology and every sub-classification is in our 2026 dual-wage tracker.

Trades that share a rate — and a decision

Several dual-wage pairs carry identical pure premium rates, which means the break-even is identical too. Worth knowing before you run the numbers twice.

Carpentry 5403/5432 and steel framing 5632/5633 — same rates, same $46.00 threshold.
Excavation 6218(1)/6220(1), grading land 6218(2)/6220(2) and land leveling 6218(3)/6220(3) — one rate pair across all three, $45.00 threshold.
Water mains 6315(1)/6316(1) and gas mains 6315(2)/6316(2) — identical, $45.00.
Painting 5474(1)/5482(1), waterproofing 5474(2)/5482(2) and storage-tank painting 5474(3)/5482(3) — one rate pair, but the thresholds differ, so the break-even does not carry across.
Sheet metal 5538(1)/5542(1) and HVAC ductwork 5538(2)/5542(2) — same rates.
Plumbing 5183(1)/5187(1), refrigeration equipment 5183(2)/5187(2) and heating or air conditioning equipment 5183(3)/5187(3) — same rates, same $35.00 threshold.

How the break-even is calculated

Total cost per hour of an employee is wage plus premium:

wage x (1 + rate / 100 x mod)

Set the low-wage version equal to the high-wage version at the threshold and solve for the wage. That gives the point of indifference. Above it, the raise is free or better; below it, you are buying a rate reduction with wages and losing.

This is the calculation that almost never gets run, because the premium saving shows up in a different column from the wage increase and nobody adds them together.

Why the percentage gap misleads

Glaziers 5467/5470 have the second-widest percentage gap of the sixteen — the low-wage code costs 124% more. Roofing is only 72%. On the ratio alone you would expect the glazier raise to be the easier sell.

It is the opposite. Roofing has a window of $2.38; glaziers have $1.67. Plumbing has a 109% gap and 99 cents. Plastering and stucco has the narrowest gap in the whole table at 31%, and its window is identical to sheet metal work, which sits at 60%.

The reason is that a percentage only compares the two codes to each other. The decision depends on how many points of rate you are buying back, applied to a wage of a given size. Roofing buys back 8.72 points of rate at a $33 wage. Glaziers buy back 4.17 points at $43.

The working rule: the window is roughly the threshold multiplied by the rate spread, divided by 100. Carpentry: $46.00 x 6.75 / 100 = $3.10, damped to $2.77 by the low-wage rate itself. Roofing: $33.00 x 8.72 / 100 = $2.88, damped to $2.38. Electrical: $40.00 x 1.62 / 100 = $0.65, damped to $0.62. The ratio between the two codes never enters it.

In practice: below about 2 points of spread the window is under a dollar in every trade on the table, and the answer is no. Above about 4 points it is always worth modelling on the real quote.

A worse mod widens every window

The experience modification multiplies premium, so it multiplies the saving too. Every break-even in the table above falls as the mod rises.

Trade	Break-even at 1.00	Break-even at 1.75	Window at 1.75
Carpentry	$43.23	$41.51	$4.49
Steel framing	$43.23	$41.51	$4.49
Roofing	$30.62	$29.31	$3.69
Glaziers	$41.33	$40.23	$2.77
Masonry	$35.51	$34.55	$2.45
Sewer	$43.60	$42.68	$2.32
Wallboard	$43.74	$42.88	$2.12
Painting	$34.76	$33.95	$2.05
Concrete	$34.84	$34.07	$1.93
Plumbing	$34.01	$33.34	$1.66
Sprinklers	$35.03	$34.37	$1.63
Stucco	$41.23	$40.72	$1.28
Sheet metal	$36.23	$35.71	$1.29
Earthwork	$44.24	$43.72	$1.28
Mains	$44.24	$43.72	$1.28
Electrical	$39.38	$38.94	$1.06

A distressed carpentry contractor at a 1.75 mod can profitably raise anyone earning more than $41.51. At a clean 0.90 mod the same contractor needs them above $43.48. The worse the account, the more reclassification is worth — which is the opposite of what most people assume, and it is the single most useful thing on this page for a hard-to-place risk.

Carpentry and steel framing are the same bet

5403/5432 and 5632/5633 carry identical pure premium rates and an identical $46.00 threshold. If you write a framing contractor doing both wood and light-gauge steel, the dual-wage decision is the same on both halves of the payroll — but the classification is not. Light-gauge cold-formed steel studs and joists are 5632/5633, not carpentry, and mixing them up on the submission is a common cause of an audit adjustment.

What this does not tell you

Three honest limits.

These are advisory rates, not filed rates. California is an open-rating state. Every carrier files its own rates and applies its own schedule modification. The pure premium rates published by the WCIRB are a benchmark; the shape of each trade gap holds across the market because the loss data is shared, but the exact break-even on a specific account depends on that carrier filing.

The wage increase is permanent; the rate saving is annual. Raising someone to hold a classification is not a one-off. If the threshold rises again next September — and it has risen every year — you are on a treadmill. Carpentry went from $41 to $46 in a single step.

Payroll records have to support it. Every dual-wage assignment is verified at final audit against the regular hourly wage. Overtime premium, bonuses and per-diem do not count. A raise that exists in an email and not in the payroll register buys you nothing.

Where this matters most

If you place California construction, the trades worth running this calculation on every single time are carpentry, steel framing and roofing — they have the three widest windows, and carpentry has the largest threshold increase of the sixteen. Glaziers and masonry are worth a look. For electrical wiring, water and gas mains, excavation and grading, the honest answer to should we raise them to hold the code is no: the window is under a dollar even at a 1.75 mod.

The threshold move is not the only thing landing on a September renewal: the experience rating eligibility threshold also changes on the same date.

Placing hard California construction accounts

CPR Business Solutions is a wholesale workers compensation broker and MGA built around high-mod and hard-to-place accounts. If a California contractor has just watched payroll reclassify into the low-wage code, has a mod above 1.50, or has been non-renewed after an audit, that is the account we want.

Call 714-928-3858 or email proposals@cprbrokers.com.