Rhode Island Workers’ Comp Exemption
We file workers’ compensation exemptions for Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island
With limited exceptions, employers with one or more employees must have workers' compensation insurance coverage (RI DLT official employer guidance).
Who can be excluded in Rhode Island
Sole proprietors
Individual owners (sole proprietors) are exempt from the coverage requirement on themselves. Whether/how a sole proprietor can voluntarily buy coverage on themselves was not clearly confirmed from an official primary source — do not assume a mechanism exists.
Partners
Same as sole proprietors: exempt from the requirement to carry coverage on themselves.
LLC members
Not given a general blanket exemption in the definitions section reviewed. R.I. Gen. Laws §28-29-2 states its officer-related exclusions 'do not apply to shareholders, directors and members who have entered into the employment of or who work under a contract of service' within a corporation or LLC — meaning LLC members actively working under an employment/service arrangement are generally treated as employees (i.e., covered), similar to the default treatment of most corporate officers.
Corporate officers
Unusual regime: MOST corporate officers ARE included as employees by default (confirmed via official RI DLT compliance brochure). A narrow, dated statutory exclusion applies only to a person appointed as a corporate officer between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2001 who was not previously an employee of the corporation — such an officer is not considered an employee unless they file a notice electing to become subject to coverage. This appears to be a legacy, one-time-window provision rather than an ongoing general officer exemption; could not independently verify whether later amendments broadened it, since the primary statute page could not be fetched directly (blocked).
Construction rules in Rhode Island
No construction-industry-specific provisions were found in the sources reviewed. Set to null rather than guessed.
How the exemption is filed
For the narrow 1999–2001-window officer exclusion: the officer elects INTO coverage by filing Form DWC-11C ('Election by Exempt Corporate Officer to Become Subject to Workers' Compensation') with the RI Division of Workers' Compensation. Separately, any worker (potentially including an officer) can waive statutory workers' compensation coverage in favor of pursuing common-law tort remedies by filing Form DWC-11 ('Notice of Claim of Common Law Rights') — this is a different mechanism than a clean ownership-based exemption and carries real tradeoffs (loss of the no-fault WC remedy). That waiver can later be rescinded via Form DWC-11R. Independent contractors (a separate category from owners) file Form DWC-11-IC with the DLT Workers' Compensation Fraud and Compliance Unit; that filing has no fee and is valid for the duration of the relationship with the named hiring entity.
- Form
- DWC-11 (Notice of Claim of Common Law Rights); DWC-11C (Election by Exempt Corporate Officer); DWC-11-IC (Independent Contractor Designation)
- Statute
- R.I. Gen. Laws §28-29-2 (Definitions)
- Market
- Competitive — coverage is bought from a private carrier.
Notes and open questions
This is the least certain state in this batch. The primary statute page (law.justia, lawserver) returned HTTP 403 on direct fetch, so the officer-exclusion and DWC-11C details rest on search-engine-synthesized excerpts of that statute plus one directly-fetched official DLT PDF brochure (dated 08/2015 — itself somewhat old) and DLT web pages. A commonly cited $5 filing fee for DWC-11C comes only from a secondary/aggregator source and was not independently confirmed — do not publish that fee without further verification. Recommend the agency double-check current officer-exemption mechanics directly with RI DLT before publishing detailed claims about Rhode Island on a client-facing page.
Sources
- https://dlt.ri.gov/sites/g/files/xkgbur571/files/documents/pdf/wc/WCComplianceBrochure.pdf
- https://dlt.ri.gov/workers-compensation/frequently-asked-questions
- https://dlt.ri.gov/forms-applications
- https://dlt.ri.gov/workers-compensation/employers
Source material dated DLT compliance brochure PDF dated 08/2015; other DLT web pages accessed 2026-08-30.. Compiled from official Rhode Island sources as a starting point, not legal advice — rules change, and your situation may turn on facts this page cannot see. Confirm with Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training (DLT), Division of Workers' Compensation / Workers' Compensation Fraud and Compliance Unit or ask us and we’ll check it for you.
Workers' comp exemption filing in Rhode Island
Tell us about your Rhode Island business and we'll confirm whether you qualify for an exemption.