Delaware Workers’ Comp Exemption
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When coverage is required in Delaware
Delaware's workers' compensation chapter applies to any employment relationship with one or more employees (19 Del. C. § 2306) — there is no minimum employee count that exempts a business generally.
Who can be excluded in Delaware
Sole proprietors
Sole proprietors are not included within the workers' compensation chapter by default (not counted as employees) and have no coverage obligation for themselves, but may elect coverage under 19 Del. C. § 2308(b).
Partners
Same treatment as sole proprietors — not included by default, may elect coverage under § 2308(b).
LLC members
Included as employees by default. For general (non-construction) employers, up to 8 members of an LLC may be exempted if the LLC and the exempted members agree in writing (19 Del. C. § 2308(a)). A secondary industry source states the cap for LLC members of construction contractors/subcontractors was raised from 4 to 8 by a 2023 Delaware law (House Bill 144) — I could not confirm this specific amendment against the statute text I was able to load, so treat that particular construction/LLC detail as unverified.
Corporate officers
Included as employees by default. For general (non-construction) employers, up to 8 officers who are stockholders of a corporation may be exempted by written agreement between the corporation and the officers (§ 2308(a)). For construction industry contractors/subcontractors (as referenced under § 2311(a)(4)), the officer-exclusion cap is narrower: no more than 4 executive officer-stockholders may elect exemption.
Construction rules in Delaware
Construction industry contractors/subcontractors face a tighter officer-exclusion cap than other industries: no more than 4 executive officers who are stockholders may be exempted (versus up to 8 for general employers). See llcMembers above regarding an unverified claim that the construction LLC-member cap was separately raised to 8.
How the exemption is filed
Delaware has no state-run exemption certificate or public exemption registry (unlike Florida). Exclusion works as a private written agreement between the corporation/LLC and the officer(s)/member(s) being excluded, under § 2308(a) — industry practice is to execute this via a standard executive-officer/LLC-member exclusion form used with the insurance carrier and the Delaware Compensation Rating Bureau (DCRB), rather than filing with a state agency directly. Sole proprietors/partners elect coverage (the opposite direction) under § 2308(b); the exact filing mechanism for that election was not detailed in the sources I reviewed. No fee was identified in any source reviewed.
- Form
- No state exemption form — see above
- Statute
- 19 Del. C. § 2306 (coverage of employers with 1+ employees); § 2308(a) (officer/LLC member exclusion by written agreement, general employers); § 2308(b) (sole proprietor/partner election of coverage); § 2311(a)(4) referenced for the construction-contractor definition tied to the narrower 4-officer cap
- Market
- Competitive — coverage is bought from a private carrier.
Notes and open questions
Statute numbers and the core 1-employee threshold, the 8-officer/8-LLC-member general cap, and the 4-officer construction cap all came from directly fetching delcode.delaware.gov itself (official Delaware Code site) — high confidence on those points. I left formName/formUrl null rather than name the DCRB exclusion form because I could not confirm it is an official state-issued form (versus an industry-standard carrier form) from a source I loaded myself. The claim that the 2023 HB144 raised the construction LLC-member cap from 4 to 8 is from a secondary industry PDF summary only, not confirmed against loadable statute text — flagged as unverified.
Sources
- https://delcode.delaware.gov/title19/c023/sc01/index.html
- https://industrialaffairs.delaware.gov/en-us/
Source material dated undated — current Delaware Code Title 19, Chapter 23 as codified; accessed 2026-08-30. Compiled from official Delaware sources as a starting point, not legal advice — rules change, and your situation may turn on facts this page cannot see. Confirm with Delaware Department of Labor, Division of Industrial Affairs, Office of Workers' Compensation or ask us and we’ll check it for you.
Workers' comp exemption filing in Delaware
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