Published June 10, 2026 · Last updated June 10, 2026

Class Code 0106 vs 0042: How Tree Work Gets Classified for California Workers' Comp

One question decides whether your tree work is class code 0106 or 0042 in California: did any part of the job require elevation? Not most of the job. Not the dangerous part. Any part. If one climber went up one tree at a job site, the whole job - ground crew, chipper operator, the person raking the lawn - is 0106. If everything stayed on the ground, the pruning can be 0042, Landscape Gardening. And tree removal is never 0042, no matter where your boots are.

That single rule drives one of the most expensive misunderstandings in the tree care business. The two codes carry very different rates, and the difference shows up at the worst possible moment: a premium audit, after the work is done and the payroll is already spent.

What does class code 0106 cover in California?

Class code 0106 is California’s workers’ comp classification for “TREE PRUNING, REPAIRING OR TRIMMING - N.O.C. - hand or mechanical power - including ground crews and shop, yard or storage operations.” Per the WCIRB’s official phraseology, classification 0106 applies when “any portion of the operations requires elevation, including but not limited to using ladders, lifts or by climbing.” The WCIRB - the rating organization designated by the California Insurance Commissioner - applies that test job by job, “at a particular job or location,” not company-wide. The elevation trigger pulls the entire job into 0106, ground crew included, and removal of trees that retain no timber value sits in 0106 with no elevation test at all. The phraseology is worth reading closely; everything below comes from it.

Notice what rides along with the climber, per that same WCIRB phraseology:

• Clean-up, chipping, and debris removal connected to the tree work
• Stump grinding or removal
• Tree spraying or fumigating done in connection with pruning, repairing, or trimming
• Removal of trees that retain no timber value
• The ground crew. Explicitly.

That last one surprises people every year. The employee who never leaves the ground, dragging brush to the chipper while a climber works overhead, is 0106 payroll. The 0042 phraseology says so directly: pruning or trimming “including ground crew operations” goes to 0106 whenever any portion of the job requires elevation.

What does class code 0042 (Landscape Gardening) cover?

Class code 0042 is “LANDSCAPE GARDENING - including maintenance of gardens.” Per the WCIRB phraseology for 0042, it includes pruning, repairing, or trimming trees or hedges “when none of the operations at a particular job or location require elevation” - and chipping performed in connection with landscape gardening. So 0042 can legitimately include tree work. A crew shaping hedges and pruning small ornamentals with pole saws and hand tools, feet on the ground for the entire job, is doing 0042 work. That is real, and a lot of maintenance landscaping fits it.

What 0042 cannot include, ever, is tree removal. The WCIRB’s learning article on tree operations states that tree removal cannot be assigned to Classification 0042 regardless of whether the operations are performed from ground level. Felling a dead tree from the ground with a chainsaw? Still 0106. The elevation test applies to pruning and trimming. Removal does not get the test at all.

0106 vs 0042: how do the two class codes compare?

How much is workers’ comp for tree trimming in California?

WCIRB’s pure premium rate for class 0106 (tree pruning, repairing or trimming) is $9.91 per $100 of payroll effective September 1, 2024; specialty broker reporting puts the September 1, 2025 advisory rate at $11.24. For class 0042, the rate reported from WCIRB’s classification listing is $5.30 per $100 of payroll effective September 1, 2025 - a reading we could not confirm directly against WCIRB’s published rate file. Take those 9/1/2025 figures at face value and the spread is $5.94 per $100 of payroll: class 0106 runs roughly 2.1 times the 0042 rate. An illustration, and only an illustration - a company with $500,000 of payroll classified 0106 instead of 0042 carries roughly $29,700 more in expected pure premium per year at those advisory rates, before the carrier’s loss cost multiplier and before the X-Mod, both of which sit on top.

Pure premium rates are the pre-expense benchmark; carriers file their own rates with expenses and profit loaded in, so the charged difference is larger. That spread is why anyone bothers arguing about classification at all. We cover how the full premium stack works on our tree care insurance cost page.

Two honesty notes, because this is where most articles get sloppy. First, advisory pure premium rates are not what you pay - they are the WCIRB’s loss-cost benchmark. Second, the $11.24 and $5.30 figures rest on broker reporting and the WCIRB classification listing respectively; confirm current rates at wcirb.com or with your broker before building a budget on them.

The broader direction is not in doubt, though. The Insurance Commissioner approved September 1, 2025 advisory pure premium rates averaging 8.7% higher than the prior year, per WCIRB. And the WCIRB has filed for a further 10.4% average increase effective September 1, 2026 - proposed, not approved, with the CDI hearing held June 9, 2026 and no decision as of this writing. Tree care has been running hotter than the statewide average. Per broker reporting of WCIRB figures, 0106 went from $10.39 to $11.36 to $9.91 and back up to $11.24 across recent filings. This class swings hard.

Can you split payroll between 0106 and 0042?

Yes. The classification is decided job by job - “at a particular job or location,” in the WCIRB’s words - so a company that does ground-only maintenance Monday and climbing work Tuesday can legitimately carry both codes. But the recordkeeping rule is strict, and it is the part that bites. Under USRP Part 3, Section V, Rule 3 (the Uniform Statistical Reporting Plan, published by the WCIRB and approved by the Insurance Commissioner), an employee’s payroll may be divided between classifications only if the employer keeps complete and accurate records supported by original time cards or time book entries, showing pay separately by employee and by operation.

Read that again: original time cards. The rule expressly prohibits dividing payroll by percentages, averages, or estimates. “We’re about 60% landscaping” does not exist as far as the auditor is concerned.

And the penalty for inadequate records is total. Per the USRP, if the records do not support the split, the entire remuneration of the employee is assigned to the highest rated classification applicable to any part of the work performed. For a tree-and-landscape operation, the highest rated class is 0106. Every dollar of that employee’s payroll gets the 0106 rate, including the weeks they spent mowing lawns.

That is the trap in full. The optimistic version - code most of the payroll 0042, figure the details out later - converts itself into a retroactive bill at audit, calculated at the 0106 rate on payroll you already paid out. In my experience the companies that get hurt are not the ones gaming the system. They are the ones whose foreman keeps hours in his head.

If you split codes, the fix is boring and cheap: time cards that show, per employee, per day, which job they worked and what that job was. Job tickets that note whether elevation was involved. Keep them. Auditors do not take your word; they take your paper.

How does workers’ comp misclassification get caught?

Three ways, mostly: the premium audit at the end of every policy term, the WCIRB’s own classification inspections, and claims. Each one compares what the payroll was coded against what the business actually did.

The premium audit. Every workers’ comp policy gets audited after the term ends. The auditor looks at payroll records, job invoices, and what the business actually does. Invoices that say “tree removal” attached to 0042 payroll are not subtle.

WCIRB inspections. The WCIRB runs its own classification inspection program - inspectors visit businesses, observe operations, and issue classification inspection reports that insurers rely on. The WCIRB also operates a test audit program; it was flagging the 0042-vs-0106 confusion in its Classification and Test Audit Insight back in April 2014. This is a decade-old, well-known issue. Nobody at the WCIRB is encountering it for the first time.

Claims. A climbing injury on a policy rated for landscape gardening invites questions that do not stop at the claim file.

When a landscaper who “also does a little tree work” gets reclassified, the reclassification is rarely partial. Without job-level time records, the USRP rule sends affected payroll to 0106 wholesale, and the carrier bills the difference back. The companies most exposed are exactly the ones who never thought of themselves as tree companies. One more thing worth knowing: if you hold the tree contractor license classification (C-61/D-49, now C-49), CSLB requires you to carry workers’ comp even with no employees - there is no exemption for tree contractors, per CSLB’s workers’ compensation requirements. More on that in our guide to workers’ comp with no employees.

How does the X-Mod make a misclassification compound?

The experience modification, or X-Mod, is a multiplier on your premium based on how your actual losses compare to expected losses for your class codes and payroll. Per the WCIRB’s experience rating guide, an X-Mod of 125% means roughly 25% more premium than average; 80% means roughly a 20% credit.

Eligibility is automatic, not optional. Per the WCIRB’s September 1, 2025 regulatory filing, you qualify for an X-Mod once expected losses over the experience period reach $10,800 (raised from $10,400). The WCIRB adjusts that threshold annually, so confirm the current figure at wcirb.com or with your broker. Here is the part specific to tree care: because 0106 carries high expected loss rates, even a small payroll crosses that threshold. A three- or four-person climbing crew can be experience-rated. The same payroll coded 0042 might not be.

So a reclassification from 0042 to 0106 can do two things at once: raise the rate on your payroll, and pull you into experience rating sooner, where any past claims start multiplying the result. The mechanics matter at renewal - which is why we review class codes as part of our renewal review, ideally before the carrier’s auditor does it for you.

What I’d actually do about it

A broker’s opinion, plainly stated: do not chase the 0042 rate. Chase accurate records.

If your operation genuinely does ground-only maintenance work, the 0042 split is legitimate and worth real money - but only if your time cards can carry it through an audit. If your crews climb on most jobs, coding payroll 0042 is not a savings strategy; it is a deferred invoice with interest in the form of an audit bill and, sometimes, a non-renewal. We work with plenty of tree care companies after a non-renewal, and classification disputes are a recurring backstory.

The pre-audit conversation is the cheap one. Walk through how your jobs actually run, set up time tracking that matches the USRP rule, and get the codes right at binding - not at audit. That is the work an independent broker who knows tree care should be doing with you. If yours is not, talk to us. And if you want the full picture of what California requires of tree services beyond comp, start with our guide to California tree service insurance requirements.

FAQ

What class code is tree trimming under California workers’ comp?

Class 0106 (Tree Pruning, Repairing or Trimming) whenever any portion of the operations at a job requires elevation - ladders, lifts, or climbing - per the WCIRB phraseology. If none of the operations at the job require elevation, the pruning or trimming is classified 0042, Landscape Gardening. The test applies job by job, not company-wide.

Is the ground crew 0106 or 0042?

On any job where someone works at elevation, the ground crew is 0106. The WCIRB phraseology for 0106 includes ground crews explicitly, and the 0042 footnote sends “ground crew operations” to 0106 whenever any portion of the job requires elevation. Ground crew payroll only sits in 0042 on jobs where nothing left the ground.

Can I split payroll between 0106 and 0042?

Yes, between jobs - but only with complete records supported by original time cards or time book entries showing each employee’s pay by operation, per USRP Part 3, Section V, Rule 3. Percentages and estimates are prohibited. If the records fall short, the entire payroll of that employee goes to the highest-rated applicable class, which is 0106.

What class code applies to stump grinding?

Stump grinding or removal performed in connection with tree pruning, repairing, trimming, or removal is included in 0106, per the WCIRB phraseology. Stump grinding done on a fee basis, not connected to tree work at the job, is separately classified (the WCIRB assigns it to a millwright classification, 3724).

Why did my workers’ comp premium jump after an audit?

Usually one of two findings: payroll coded 0042 was reclassified to 0106 because jobs involved elevation or removal, or a payroll split failed for lack of original time records, sending entire wages to the highest-rated class per the USRP. Either way the carrier bills the rate difference retroactively, and the corrected payroll data also feeds future X-Mod calculations.

How much is workers’ comp for tree trimming in California per $100 of payroll?

The advisory pure premium benchmark for 0106 is $9.91 per $100 of payroll effective September 1, 2024 per WCIRB, with specialty broker reporting putting the September 1, 2025 rate at $11.24. Your charged rate will differ - carriers apply their own filed rates, plus your X-Mod and any credits or debits. See our workers’ comp page for how that stack works.

Related: California insurance requirements · Workers' comp for tree care · What tree care insurance costs