Is your workers comp classification — and premium — correct?
Wrong ANZSIC classification means the wrong premium. Check your setup in about a minute — your effective rate against an indicative industry benchmark, plus the contractor, WHS and claims factors that quietly move it.
Takes ~1 minute · Indicative benchmark · Figures stay in your browser until you choose to share them
Classification
ANZSIC code check
Premium
Yours vs indicative avg
Contractors
Certificates of Currency
WHS & Claims
What lifts your rate
About this tool
Workers Comp Premium Checker
Workers compensation is compulsory for almost every Australian employer, yet the premium you pay hinges on a few details that are surprisingly easy to get wrong — chiefly the ANZSIC industry classification your policy is written against. Misclassify your business and you can quietly overpay (or underpay and expose yourself to a shortfall) year after year, because the same wages are charged at a very different rate depending on the code applied. Layer on the state scheme you fall under, your declared remuneration, your claims history and how you handle contractors, and it becomes genuinely hard for an owner to know whether their premium is fair. This tool gives you a fast, plain-English sanity check on whether your classification and premium look right before you accept the next renewal notice.
How it works
You enter your state or territory, industry, total declared wages, current annual premium, employee count, claims in the last three years, and how you handle contractor Certificates of Currency and WHS. The tool works out your effective rate — your premium as a percentage of wages — and compares it against an indicative benchmark rate for your industry, showing the gap in both dollars and percentage terms. Crucially, the benchmark is presented as a directional sanity check only, not a quote: it flags that real rates are set by your specific state scheme (icare in NSW, WorkSafe Victoria, WorkCover Queensland, ReturnToWorkSA and the others) and by your precise ANZSIC code. Alongside the rate comparison it surfaces qualitative findings — unverified contractor cover that can fall back onto your policy, an absent or basic WHS system, a claims history lifting your experience rating, and declared-remuneration components (like super above the guarantee or termination payments) that may not belong in the wage figure at all.
Who it’s for
Australian small and medium business owners and managers who want to check, before renewal, whether their workers compensation classification and premium look right.
- The single most common workers-comp premium error is an incorrect ANZSIC industry classification — the same wages charged under the wrong code can mean a materially different premium every year.
- Your premium is set by your specific state or territory scheme and your experience rating, so any cross-industry average is a directional sanity check, never a substitute for your scheme's published rates.
- Beyond the headline rate, four quiet factors move your premium: unverified contractor Certificates of Currency, the strength of your WHS system, your recent claims history, and what you include in declared remuneration.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my ANZSIC classification matter so much for my premium?
Your workers-comp premium is broadly your declared wages multiplied by a rate tied to your industry classification. Get the ANZSIC code wrong — for example, a predominantly office-based business coded as something more hazardous — and you pay the wrong rate on every dollar of payroll. It is the most common and most expensive error, and it compounds each year until it's corrected. The tool shows you the classification it's assuming and prompts you to check it matches what's actually on your policy.
Is the benchmark rate the tool shows me an official figure?
No, and the tool is deliberate about saying so. The industry rate is an indicative average used only to show whether your effective rate looks broadly high, fair or low. Real premiums are priced by your state scheme — icare, WorkSafe Victoria, WorkCover Queensland, ReturnToWorkSA and the rest all price differently — and by your precise ANZSIC code, payroll size and experience rating. Treat the result as a prompt to compare against your scheme's published rates, not as a quote or as advice.
How do contractors, claims and declared wages quietly change what I pay?
If a contractor without a current Certificate of Currency is injured on your site, that claim can fall back onto your policy, lifting both your premium and your direct liability. Recent or multiple claims raise your experience rating and can keep premiums elevated for several years, while a documented WHS system reduces claim frequency and may earn discounts. And you can over-declare: items such as super above the guarantee, termination payments and some allowances may be exempt, so including them inflates the wage base your premium is charged on. The tool flags each of these for review.