By Adrian Middleton, Sword & Shield, PLLC · Updated Saturday, October 24, 2026
What code 5474 covers
- Interior and exterior painting of buildings and structures, including surface preparation, pressure washing before painting, caulking and minor patching.
- Staining, varnishing and wallpaper hanging by the painting crew.
- Shop operations of a painting contractor and the crew's drivers.
- Painting of structures such as tanks and bridges when not separately classified.
What it does not cover
- Drywall finishing and texturing (5445) when done by a drywall crew.
- Pressure washing as a standalone service with no painting.
- Floor coating and epoxy work when separately classified.
- Clerical (8810) and outside sales (8742) for employees who do nothing else.
How the Division assigns it on a stop-work order
On a stop-work order worksheet, the investigator assigns a class code to each uninsured worker for each period from two sources: the employer's records (payroll by job, job descriptions, invoices, permits) and the investigator's own observation on the jobsite. With no records, Rule 69L-6.028 directs the Department to impute payroll at the highest-rated class code the investigator observed. Sprayers, ladders, drop cloths and five-gallon buckets are recorded. Painting is rarely confused with another code on site; the worksheet fight in 5474 is almost always about who is an employee, not which code. Under the NCCI basic manual the governing class is the one with the most payroll, and an employee's payroll is assigned to a single code unless the records separate it by operation; interchange-of-labor splits require contemporaneous payroll records, not after-the-fact estimates. Getting a worker moved from code 5474 to a lower-rated code is a records argument, made line by line on Form DFS-F4-1595.
Misclassification patterns the investigator looks for
- Painters paid per job by check and called subcontractors: employees under s. 440.02(18)(c), plus $5,000 each under s. 440.107(7)(f) if represented as independent contractors.
- A painting owner with a non-construction exemption for a different company name, or an expired one. See how exemptions fail.
- Pressure-washing employees coded to a lower service code who also paint: the painting payroll governs.
- Family members 'helping out' for cash: employees.
Clerical (8810) and outside sales (8742) are standard exception codes. A worker's payroll goes there only if their duties are exclusively clerical or sales and the records show it. An office manager who also runs materials to the jobsite, or an owner who sells jobs and swings a hammer, is assigned to the governing construction class for all of their payroll. This is the single most common reclassification on a penalty worksheet.
The rate
Florida's approved manual rate for this code is filed by NCCI and approved by the Office of Insurance Regulation effective each January 1. The Department's worksheet uses the rate in effect for each period of non-compliance, so a 24-month lookback can span three rate years. Rates are not stated on this page because they change; your agent, carrier or the current NCCI Florida rate pages have the figure. The free calculator takes the rate as an input.
Why 'construction' matters
Rule 69L-6.021, F.A.C. lists code 5474 as a construction industry classification. That means one employee triggers the coverage requirement (s. 440.02(20)(b)2), no more than three exempt officers per company or affiliated group (s. 440.02(18)(b)2), and a $50 fee for each officer exemption (s. 440.05(8)(a)).
Served with a worksheet that rates your crew at code 5474? We audit it line by line before anything is produced.
(850) 766-6825Pre-submission auditQuestions
I only have two painters. Do I need workers' comp in Florida?+
Yes. Painting is a construction classification under Rule 69L-6.021, and construction employers must carry coverage with one or more employees (s. 440.02(20)(b)2). The four-employee threshold is for non-construction only.
Are my painters employees if they bring their own brushes?+
Yes. In construction the independent contractor test does not apply; every person paid to work is an employee unless they carry their own policy or hold a valid officer exemption (s. 440.02(18)(c)).