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Class Codes 8810, 8742 and 9015: Clerical, Outside Sales and Building Operations

8/25/2026

Three class codes generate a disproportionate share of workers' comp disputes between employers and auditors: 8810 (clerical office employees), 8742 (outside salespersons) and 9015 (building operations). The first two are cheap codes that employers want to use as widely as possible. The third is a governing code that often should not be there at all.

All three get misapplied for the same reason. Someone in payroll or HR assigns a code from a job title, the carrier accepts it at binding because it is an estimate, and nobody looks again until the premium auditor arrives and reads the actual duties. By then the policy year is over and the only question left is how much additional premium is due.

This guide covers what each code means under the NCCI classification system, the rules that disqualify an employee, how the codes interact with the business's governing classification, and what changes at audit. If you need the broader picture of how premium is built from payroll, rates and the experience mod, start with our guide to calculating workers' comp premiums.

First, a note on which manual applies

The code numbers in this article are the ones used in the classification system maintained by the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) and adopted, with local variations, in most states. Several states run their own rating bureaus with their own manuals and, in some cases, their own numbering. California's bureau (the WCIRB) also uses 8810 for clerical office employees and 8742 for outside salespersons, but its eligibility rules are written differently from NCCI's, and other independent bureaus have their own versions too.

Monopolistic-fund states (where coverage is bought from the state fund) classify employers through the state fund under that fund's own rules.

So the practical rule is simple: read the definition in the manual that governs your state, not a generic description from a website, including this one. The structure described below is common to most systems; the precise wording, and therefore what an auditor will accept, is not. Your state page is the place to start, for example California, New York or Pennsylvania.

How these codes fit into the classification system

NCCI's system starts from the principle that the business is classified, not the individual job. Each location or job gets a basic classification that describes the business as a whole, and that classification is meant to include all the employees needed to run it.

The governing classification is the basic classification, other than a standard exception, that carries the greatest payroll at a location. It is the code that describes what the business does.

Standard exception classifications are the carve-outs. They let certain low-hazard employees be split out of the governing code and rated separately, even though they work for the same business. Under NCCI's Basic Manual rules the standard exceptions are:

  • 8810 Clerical Office Employees
  • 8871 Clerical Telecommuter Employees
  • 8742 Salespersons or Collectors, Outside
  • 7380 Drivers, Chauffeurs and Messengers (a different kind of exception, and not covered here)

The standard exception only works if two things are true: the governing classification's own wording does not already include those employees, and the employee actually meets the code's requirements. Both conditions trip employers up.

Code 9015 is not a standard exception. It is a basic classification for businesses that operate buildings, and it frequently ends up as the governing code for property owners and management firms. It belongs in this article because it is the code most often paired, wrongly, with 8810 and 8742.

Code 8810: Clerical Office Employees

Code 8810 is usually among the lowest-rated codes in a state. For a business whose governing code carries a high rate (a manufacturer, a contractor, a warehouse operator) every dollar of payroll moved into 8810 is a material saving. That is exactly why auditors test it.

What qualifies

The NCCI-format rules require three things.

The duties are clerical. The definition covers creating or maintaining correspondence, records and files, computer work, telephone duties, data entry, operating office machines, and general office work of a similar nature.

The work area is separated from the operating hazards. The clerical workstation must be physically separated from the factory floor, store, shop, warehouse, yard or job site by floors, walls, partitions, counters or other physical barriers. A desk in the corner of the warehouse does not qualify, however clerical the work is.

Nothing in the employee's job disqualifies them. This is where most reclassifications happen.

What disqualifies an employee

Under the NCCI-format rules, an employee who otherwise fits 8810 is disqualified if their duties involve:

  • Outside sales or acting as an outside representative
  • Direct supervision of non-clerical employees (outside an eligible site)
  • Physical labor, demonstration or instruction
  • Exposure to the operating hazards of the business that is incidental to, necessary for or related to anything other than the clerical office
  • Performing work that is included in the employer's basic classification

There is a short list of incidental tasks that do not disqualify a clerical employee: making bank deposits, picking up or delivering mail, buying office supplies, and delivering paychecks or clerical documents to employees in an area exposed to the operating hazards.

The practical test is to ask what the person actually does in a normal week, not what the job description says. Common failures:

  • The office manager at a small contractor who also runs to the supply house, drops materials at sites and checks on crews
  • The receptionist at a distributor who covers the will-call counter and pulls stock
  • The bookkeeper at a restaurant who also works the host stand on busy nights
  • The "inside sales" person who drives out to meet customers, demonstrate equipment or measure jobs
  • The plant administrator whose desk sits on the production floor

Mixed duties: no splitting

This is the single most misunderstood point about 8810. Many employers assume that an employee who is clerical 70% of the time can have 70% of their payroll in 8810. Under the NCCI-format Basic Manual, that is not how it works.

The interchange of labor rule, which allows an individual employee's payroll to be divided between classifications, requires actual time records by classification (estimates and percentage allocations are not permitted), and it applies to basic classifications. The manual specifically states that 8810, 8871, 8742 and 8748 are not available for division of payroll. An employee who performs disqualifying duties does not get a partial 8810 allocation. Their payroll goes to the basic classification that applies to their work.

California's WCIRB has its own wording on how much clerical time is needed and where it must be performed, which is one reason a multi-state employer cannot assume the same employee is classified the same way in every state.

When 8810 is the whole business

Code 8810 also appears as the governing classification for businesses that are, in effect, just offices. The "NOC" in its full title (not otherwise classified) matters here: if the manual has a more specific code whose wording includes clerical employees, that code applies instead.

NCCI's own inspection data shows how often this goes wrong. In its review of 2023 classification inspections, NCCI reported that in 2022 more than 60% of policies inspected with 8810 or 8742 as the governing classification ended up with a different governing code, and more than half of those changes were to Code 8723 (insurance companies, including clerical and salespersons). The figure for 2023 was just over 36%. The lesson is not specific to insurance: many industries have office-type codes whose phraseology already includes clerical and sales staff, and where one applies, 8810 and 8742 are not available.

Code 8742: Salespersons or Collectors, Outside

Code 8742 covers employees whose sales or collection duties take place away from the employer's premises. It is typically priced well below most operating codes, so it attracts the same pressure as 8810.

What qualifies

The employee's job must be sales or collection, performed away from the employer's premises: calling on customers, prospects or accounts in the field. Office time spent supporting that work does not disqualify the person, but the core of the job has to be outside selling or collecting.

What disqualifies an employee

The NCCI-format rules exclude employees who:

  • Deliver merchandise
  • Use vehicles to deliver or pick up goods, even if they also sell or collect
  • Walk or use public transportation to deliver goods, even if they also sell or collect
  • Travel between the employer's own locations as district or regional managers performing duties that are not outside sales or collection
  • Perform job-site measurements or inspections to prepare bids for a construction contractor

The last one catches a lot of construction and home-improvement businesses. The estimator who visits the house, measures the roof and prices the job is exposed to the hazards of the job site. That employee belongs in the contractor's operating classification, not 8742, regardless of whether their pay is commission-based.

The delivery exclusion catches distributors. A route salesperson who takes orders and also delivers product, stocks shelves or picks up returns is doing the work of the business, not just selling it.

8742 and payroll records

The same no-splitting rule applies. An employee who sells in the field three days a week and works in the warehouse two days does not get 60% in 8742. And because the code depends on where the work is done, you need records that show it: territory lists, call logs, CRM activity, mileage records. "Sales" in a job title proves nothing at audit.

Code 9015: Buildings, Operation by Owner, Lessee or Real Estate Management Firm

Code 9015 covers the employees who look after buildings: maintenance staff, janitors, porters, superintendents, groundskeepers and night watch guards who work for the owner, lessee or a real estate management firm operating office, apartment, mercantile or similar buildings. The code applies to the care, custody and maintenance of the premises.

Two scope limits matter:

It is not for owner-occupiers. The code does not apply to an owner or lessee who occupies all or most of the building for its own manufacturing or mercantile operations. A manufacturer's maintenance crew belongs with the manufacturer's code (building maintenance is a general inclusion in most governing classifications).

It is not for construction. New construction and alterations are separately classified under contractor codes. A maintenance employee who changes filters and fixes leaks is one thing; a crew gutting and rebuilding units between tenants is another, and an auditor will look at invoices and work orders to tell the difference.

The 9015 vs 9012 problem

The most common 9015 error has nothing to do with maintenance workers. It is assigning 9015 as the governing code to a property management office whose payroll is mostly property managers, leasing agents and administrative staff, then putting those people in 8810 and 8742.

NCCI has a separate code for that payroll: Code 9012, Building or Property Management: Property Managers and Leasing Agents & Clerical, Salespersons. Because 9012's wording already includes clerical and salesperson exposures, NCCI's Basic Manual rules prohibit using 8810 and 8742 alongside it for those employees.

NCCI's 2023 inspection review found that more than 25% of policies inspected with 9015 as the governing classification had their governing code changed, and more than 20% of those went to 9012. If your management company's payroll is mostly office and leasing staff, 9012 is the code to discuss with your agent, and 8810/8742 entries for leasing agents should be treated as an audit risk.

How the three codes go wrong in practice

Situation

Likely issue

What the auditor looks at

Office manager also runs errands to job sites

Disqualifying exposure; not 8810

Job description, mileage, interviews

Clerical desk inside the shop or warehouse

No physical separation

Site visit, floor plan

Employee split 70/30 between 8810 and operations

8810 cannot be divided

Time records by code

Commissioned estimator measuring jobs

Not 8742; contractor code

Bid files, site visit records

Route salesperson who delivers

Not 8742

Vehicle use, delivery records

Leasing agents coded 8742 under a 9015 policy

9012 likely governs

Payroll by role, management agreements

Maintenance crew doing unit renovations

Construction code exposure

Work orders, invoices, permits

 

What happens at the premium audit

The classifications on your policy's information page are an estimate. The standard policy form says so directly: the classifications were assigned based on the estimated exposures, and if the actual exposures are not properly described, the insurer will assign the proper classifications, rates and premium basis by endorsement. Final premium is then calculated on actual payroll in the correct classifications.

That means a misclassification found at audit is billed back to the start of the policy period, and if the error is structural (a governing code change, for example) it will usually be corrected on the renewal as well.

The reverse also happens. Employers whose genuinely clerical staff were left in the governing code overpay year after year because nobody asked. An audit is the moment to raise it, with records.

Records that support 8810 and 8742

  • Job descriptions that match what people actually do, reviewed annually
  • An organization chart showing who supervises whom
  • A floor plan or photos showing the separation of the office from operations
  • Payroll reports by employee and by class code, reconciled to Form 941 wages
  • For outside sales: territory lists, call or CRM logs, mileage records
  • For anyone with mixed duties: time records by classification (and an understanding that 8810 and 8742 still cannot be split)

The payroll department checklist for workers' comp covers the broader set of reports payroll should be able to produce on demand.

Who should own class code assignment

In most organizations, class codes are entered once at hire in the payroll or HRIS system and never touched again. That is the root cause of most of the problems above. Practical controls:

Assign the code from duties, not titles. Build a short decision checklist for 8810 and 8742 using your state's actual manual wording and require HR to complete it at hire.

Re-check on job changes. A clerk who moves to a hybrid role, a salesperson who starts making deliveries, a maintenance tech who starts doing renovation work: each one is a classification event.

Reconcile before the audit. Run payroll by class code at least quarterly, compare it to the policy's estimated exposures and tell the carrier about material changes. Large mid-term changes surface at audit anyway; surfacing them earlier avoids a single large bill.

Know where the line is between payroll and the agent. Payroll owns the data. The agent and carrier own the classification decision. When a code is unclear, ask for a classification inquiry through your rating bureau rather than guessing.

For broader context on what payroll owns in the workers' comp process, see Workers' Compensation 101: A Payroll Professional's Guide. And because misclassification can slide into misrepresentation if it is deliberate, the workers' comp fraud red flags post is worth reading for the employer side of the fraud problem.

Building the skill in-house

Getting classification right is a repeatable skill: reading scope language, applying the standard exception rules, keeping the records that support them and pushing back on audit findings that are wrong. It sits alongside the other two levers payroll and HR control, the experience mod and the premium audit itself.

That combination is the focus of Workers' Comp Premium Control: Experience Mods, Classifications and Audit Mastery, our online program built around the three things that drive what an employer pays: classification, the experience modification and the audit. If your team is new to workers' comp altogether, the Workers' Comp 101 webinar is the place to start.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is workers' comp code 8810?

Code 8810 is the NCCI classification for clerical office employees not otherwise classified. It covers employees whose duties are limited to clerical work such as correspondence, records, data entry, phones and general office work, performed in an area physically separated from the business's operating hazards by walls, floors, partitions, counters or similar barriers. It is a standard exception, which means it can be split out of a higher-rated governing classification, but only for employees who meet all the requirements and have no disqualifying duties such as outside sales, physical labor or exposure to operations. Independent bureau states, including California, publish their own definitions.

What is the difference between code 8810 and 8742?

Code 8810 is for clerical employees working in a separated office. Code 8742 is for employees whose job is sales or collection away from the employer's premises. An employee cannot be in both for the same work, and neither code can be divided with another under the NCCI-format interchange of labor rule. An inside salesperson who works the phone from the office is typically 8810, because telephone sales is a clerical duty. A salesperson who calls on customers in the field is 8742, unless they also deliver goods, pick up products or measure job sites, which disqualifies them.

Can an employee be split between 8810 and another class code?

Not under the NCCI-format Basic Manual. The interchange of labor rule allows an employee's payroll to be divided among basic classifications when the employer keeps actual time records by classification, but the manual states that 8810, 8871, 8742 and 8748 are not available for division of payroll. An employee who performs duties that disqualify them from 8810 is assigned to the applicable basic classification for all of their payroll. Independent bureaus have their own rules, so a multi-state employer should check each state's manual rather than assuming the same treatment everywhere.

What is class code 9015 used for?

Code 9015 covers employees of a building owner, lessee or real estate management firm who take care of the premises: maintenance workers, janitors, superintendents, groundskeepers and night watch guards. It does not apply to an owner or lessee that occupies most of the building for its own manufacturing or mercantile operations, and it does not cover new construction or alterations, which are classified under contractor codes. Property managers, leasing agents and office staff of a building operator generally fall under Code 9012 in NCCI states, not 9015 with 8810 and 8742 alongside it.

Does an outside salesperson who uses a company car qualify for 8742?

Using a car to visit customers does not by itself disqualify an employee from 8742. What disqualifies them is using a vehicle to deliver or pick up goods, delivering merchandise in any way, or performing job-site measurements or inspections to prepare bids for a construction contractor. A rep who drives to customer meetings and takes orders that the warehouse ships is typically 8742. A rep who loads samples, drops off product and picks up returns is doing the work of the business and belongs in the operating classification. Keep mileage and activity records that show the difference.

What happens if my class codes are wrong at audit?

The classifications on the policy are an estimate, and the standard policy form allows the insurer to assign the proper classifications by endorsement when actual exposures differ. Final premium is calculated on actual payroll in the correct codes, so an error found at audit is billed back to the start of the policy period, and a structural error is usually carried into the renewal. You can dispute a finding by providing records, and in most states you can ask the rating bureau for a classification inspection or appeal. Errors in your favor should also be raised.