Louisiana Workers’ Comp Exemption
We file workers’ compensation exemptions for Louisiana sole proprietors, LLC members, and corporate officers. Send us your details and we’ll confirm whether you qualify and handle the filing.
When coverage is required in Louisiana
Louisiana has no minimum-employee-count exemption for ordinary employers — coverage is generally required from the first employee. Separate statutory exemptions exist for certain categories (e.g., residential domestic servants, some agricultural workers, musicians/performers under a performance contract) that were not independently researched in depth for this entry.
Who can be excluded in Louisiana
Sole proprietors
Not excluded by default in the sense of being outside the Act automatically — La. R.S. 23:1035 lets a sole proprietor affirmatively ELECT not to be covered, by written agreement with the insurer or group self-insurance fund. Absent that election, a sole proprietor's own coverage status under a policy follows ordinary underwriting practice.
Partners
A partner 'with respect to a partnership employing him' may likewise elect not to be covered under R.S. 23:1035, via written agreement with the insurer/self-insurance fund. The statute text located does not state a minimum ownership percentage for partners specifically (unlike the 10% thresholds that apply to corporate officers and LLC members).
LLC members
A member of an LLC who owns not less than a 10% membership interest may elect not to be covered, via written agreement with the insurer/self-insurance fund, under R.S. 23:1035.
Corporate officers
A bona fide corporate officer (president, vice president, secretary, or treasurer) who owns not less than 10% of the corporation's stock may elect not to be covered, via written agreement with the insurer/self-insurance fund, under R.S. 23:1035. No cap on number of qualifying officers was found in the statute text retrieved.
How the exemption is filed
This is the 'no state exemption registry' regime: R.S. 23:1035 makes the election a private WRITTEN AGREEMENT WITH THE INSURER (or group self-insurance fund) — not a certificate filed with a state agency. No officially published state 'Notice of Election/Rejection' form was located on the Louisiana Workforce Commission / Office of Workers' Compensation Administration (OWCA) site during this research; do not publish a specific form name, agency filing address, or fee for Louisiana, since none could be verified as an official state-administered filing. The election, once made, binds the corporation/partnership/LLC/sole proprietorship as to that person across all trades/businesses/occupations they conduct, and the excluded person's compensation is excluded from workers' comp premium computation.
- Form
- No state exemption form — see above
- Statute
- La. R.S. 23:1035
- Market
- Competitive — coverage is bought from a private carrier.
Notes and open questions
Confirmed by directly fetching the Louisiana Legislature's own statute page for R.S. 23:1035. This is a clean example of the 'election via insurer agreement, not a state-filed exemption certificate' regime — there is no LA DOI/OWCA exemption form/fee to cite, and none should be invented. A secondary source claimed some employers must file a 'Notice of Election or Rejection' form 'with their Insurance Carrier,' which is consistent with the insurer-agreement mechanism described in the statute but is not itself an official state-published form.
Sources
Source material dated Retrieved 2026-08-30 from the Louisiana State Legislature's official codified statute page. Compiled from official Louisiana sources as a starting point, not legal advice — rules change, and your situation may turn on facts this page cannot see. Confirm with Louisiana Workforce Commission — Office of Workers' Compensation Administration (OWCA) or ask us and we’ll check it for you.
Workers' comp exemption filing in Louisiana
Tell us about your Louisiana business and we'll confirm whether you qualify for an exemption.