Your Workers’ Comp Doesn’t Cover You.
You bought it because the GC wanted a certificate. Read the policy. When you get hurt, it pays you nothing.
Check My Rate in 60 Seconds →No medical exam. No obligation. Takes about a minute.
ContractorsDI writes individual disability income insurance for self-employed tradespeople — underwritten by Assurity, available in WA, OR, ID, CA, AZ, TX, TN and FL.
Here’s what you actually bought
A GC told you no certificate, no job. So you bought a minimum-premium comp policy — a “ghost policy” — for somewhere between $800 and $1,500 a year. Or you filed an exemption with the state. Either way you got the paper, you got on the job, and you stopped thinking about it.
That’s the problem. Both of those documents say the same thing: the owner is not covered. That’s not a loophole or fine print. That’s the entire design. A ghost policy covers employees you don’t have. An exemption is you formally telling the state to leave you out.
So you’re paying for insurance every year, you’re carrying a certificate in the truck, and the one person on that job site with nothing behind him is you.
Eight weeks. That’s the median.
A tradesman who gets hurt badly enough to miss work misses a median of 8 days. Fall off something, it’s 13. Blow your back out lifting, it’s 14. Those are the middle. The tail is what wrecks people — a torn rotator cuff, a shattered wrist, a herniated disc, and you’re out for months.
Run your own number. What do you clear in a month? Now double it. That’s a broken wrist.
And it isn’t just the falls. Musculoskeletal problems and injuries are 37% of all long-term disability claims. Twenty-five years of kneeling on concrete and hauling material up ladders doesn’t announce itself. One morning your shoulder just doesn’t work anymore.
Social Security isn’t the backstop you think it is. Roughly 30% of applications get approved, the average benefit is about $1,630 a month, and the wait runs months.
Disability insurance covers the guy the comp policy leaves out
It’s simple. You get hurt or sick and can’t work your trade, a check shows up every month. Paid directly to you — not to a hospital, not to a lawyer, not through anybody. You spend it on the mortgage, the truck note, groceries, whatever you need.
Unlike comp, it doesn’t care whether you got hurt on the job or falling off your own roof on a Saturday. And unlike an occupational accident policy, it covers illness and the wear-and-tear injuries that take most tradesmen out — not just accidents.
What it runs
- 40-year-old journeyman electrician, $60k — about $40/month for $1,200/month in benefit
- 44-year-old GC, $80k — about $35/month for $1,500/month, or $74 for $2,900
- 37-year-old bricklayer, $32k — about $30/month for $700/month
Illustrative examples based on published carrier figures. Your rate depends on your trade, age, health, income and the waiting period you pick.
Rule of thumb: it costs 1–3% of what you make to protect the rest of it. Most guys in the trades land between $30 and $60 a month.
The questions everybody asks
“I’ve got savings.”
For how long? Most guys have a month, maybe two, and that’s before the truck payment and the tools you’re still financing. Almost 40% of American adults can’t cover a surprise $400 without borrowing.
“I’m careful. I’ve never been hurt.”
Construction has the most workplace deaths of any private industry in the country and 3.4× the all-industry rate of falls to a lower level. Framing contractors run about double the construction average on injuries. Careful helps. It isn’t a plan.
“Isn’t this expensive?”
You’re probably already paying $800–$1,500 a year for a policy that pays you zero. This is $30–$60 a month for one that pays you directly. If money’s tight, take a longer waiting period — going from a 30-day wait to a 90-day wait cuts the premium roughly in half.
“My trade’s too risky to qualify.”
Maybe, maybe not — it depends on the trade and the carrier. Electricians and plumbers price well. Roofers, framers and heavy equipment operators can still get covered but with lower caps. A few specialties — crane operating, structural steel, tunnel work, asbestos — most carriers won’t touch. Sixty seconds tells you which bucket you’re in, and it costs nothing to find out.
“I write everything off, so my income looks low.”
That’s the real conversation, and you should have it before you apply. Carriers underwrite off your Schedule C net profit, so heavy write-offs shrink what you can qualify for. Worth a phone call so you’re not surprised.
Find your state
The rules are different everywhere, and in some states the gap is bigger than you’d think.
Who you’re dealing with
ContractorsDI is a licensed insurance agency, not a lead broker. Coverage is underwritten by Assurity Life Insurance Company — one of the few carriers that will actually write the trades, with occupation classes that cover carpenters, electricians, plumbers, roofers and truck drivers rather than excluding them.
National Producer Number: 18669575
State licenses: Washington 971806 · California 4529149 · Florida W462583 · Tennessee 3004132492 · Arizona 18669575 · Oregon 18669575 · Texas 18669575 · Idaho 18669575
You can verify any of those with your state’s Department of Insurance before you tell me anything about yourself.
Sixty seconds tells you where you stand
Your trade, your rough income, your age. No medical exam, no obligation, nobody shows up at your house. You’ll see a real number and you can decide from there.
Prefer to talk it through? Phone/Text 888-389-0055