Insurance for architects

Architects log 0.3 recordable injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers — 87 percent below private industry's 2.3 and number 54 of 54 trades here. The injury record is not the hard part of insuring this trade; the liability and contract requirements are.

Tailor the checklist

1Architects 0.3 per 100
2Private industry 2.3 per 100
3Rank of 54 #54

Total recordable cases per 100 full-time workers, 2024: this trade against private industry and the 54 trades on this site. Bars to scale. Source: BLS SOII Table 1.

Recordable cases

0.3

per 100 FTE, 2024

Serious cases (DART)

0.2

67% of all cases

Fatal injuries, 2024

n/a

count not published

Workforce

193,515

full-time equivalents

What goes wrong in this trade

Design-error claims that surface years after completion, cost overruns blamed on drawings, and injuries during site visits.

The checklist for architects

E&O
Professional liability (E&O)
Design errors and omissions; owners and many public clients require it.
Not required by federal law; some state licences and client contracts require it.
GL
General liability
Office premises and site-visit claims.
Not required by federal law. Required in practice by most contracts, landlords and many state contractor licences.
WC
Workers' compensation
Required once you have employees in nearly every state.
Required by state law in nearly every state once you have employees; the employee-count threshold and exemptions are set state by state and are not reproduced here.
Cyber
Cyber liability
Drawings and client files are targets for ransomware.
Not required by law; required by some health-care and corporate contracts.
HNOA
Hired and non-owned auto
Staff driving their own cars to sites.
Not required by law; commonly added to GL or auto.

Red tags mark policy types that a law or licence usually requires; green tags are what contracts, landlords and clients ask for. Tailor the list for your situation (no employees, no vehicles, alcohol) with the checklist tool.

What the injury record means for the premium

Architects: total recordable cases, cases with days away/restriction/transfer (DART) and cases with days away from work, per 100 FTE, 2024, columns to scale.

With 0.3 cases per 100 workers the workers' compensation base rate for this class is comparatively modest, and only 67 percent of cases involved days away, restriction or transfer. Where the premium goes instead is liability: design errors and omissions; owners and many public clients require it, and that is a general-liability and professional-liability question rather than a payroll one. Expect the certificate requirements in your contracts to matter more than your loss history.

The nearest trades by injury rate are engineering firms (0.5), photographers (0.6), bars and taverns (1.3); the same payroll insured in those classes would start from a similar workers' comp base.

Legal, licence or contract?

Fixed by law

Workers' compensation once you have employees, in nearly every state (threshold and exemptions set by the state; not reproduced here).
State minimum auto liability on any vehicle the business operates.

Asked for by contracts and licences

Getting quotes. Take this checklist to a broker who writes architects — ask them to quote each line separately so you can see what the 0.3-per-100 class rate is doing to the workers' comp figure versus the liability lines. This site does not sell or quote insurance.

Sources: BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, Table 1 (2024), incidence rates per 100 full-time workers; BLS SOII Table 3 (2024), hours worked by detailed industry; BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, Table A-1 (2024). Fatal rate per 100,000 FTE is derived (count ÷ hours × 200,000,000) and approximate. Checked 2026-10-24.