What employers' liability is
Employers' liability is the legal liability of an employer for injuries to employees — that is the NAIC's classification, in its Uniform Property & Casualty Product Coding Matrix effective 1 January 2026. In practice it is Part Two (Coverage B) of the standard workers' compensation and employers' liability policy. Part One pays the statutory workers' compensation benefits: no-fault, and with no dollar limit. Part Two covers the employer's legal liability where the claim falls outside the workers' compensation statute.
The two parts answer different questions. Part One asks whether the injury arose out of and in the course of employment, and pays the benefits the statute sets. Part Two asks whether the employer is legally liable in a civil claim — and unlike Part One, the claimant must prove negligence or fault.
The NAIC codes it 16.0002 when it is issued as an endorsement or part of a statutory workers' compensation policy, and 17.0009, 17.1009 or 17.2009 (Other Liability) when it is issued as a stand-alone policy or as an endorsement to a package policy.
What Part Two covers that Part One does not
Part Two covers civil lawsuits by employees or their families for injury or disease that the workers' compensation statute does not cover. The cases the manuals name are: intentional-injury or deliberate-intent claims; third-party and dual-capacity claims, where the employer is sued in a second capacity as well as employer; and consequential bodily injury to family members — for example, a spouse's claim arising from the employee's injury.
That is the whole of the cover's job: it is the employer's defence and liability for employee-injury lawsuits that escape the statute. It is not a second workers' compensation benefit, and it does not pay statutory benefits twice.
The standard limits: 100/500/100
In the NCCI system the standard employers' liability limits are $100,000 per accident for bodily injury by accident, $100,000 per employee for bodily injury by disease, and a $500,000 policy limit for bodily injury by disease — written 100/500/100. The NCCI Basic Manual and Statistical Plan set them, the North Carolina Rate Bureau's Basic Manual Rule 5 repeats the same table, and Insureon's workers' compensation cost page repeats the identical standard minimums. No disagreement was found; NCCI governs.
| Limit | Amount |
|---|---|
| Bodily injury by accident, per accident | $100,000 |
| Bodily injury by disease, per employee | $100,000 |
| Bodily injury by disease, policy limit | $500,000 |
Higher limits are bought by endorsement for an additional premium — $500,000/$500,000/$500,000 and $1,000,000/$1,000,000/$1,000,000 are the usual steps up. Construction contracts commonly require $1,000,000 across all three limits, so a contractor should check the contract before accepting the standard limits.
Who needs a separate stop-gap policy
Any employer that buys workers' compensation in an NCCI state gets employers' liability automatically as Part Two of the standard policy. It matters most to employers whose employees could sue outside compensation — construction, staffing and manufacturing are the usual examples.
The exception is the four monopolistic states — North Dakota, Ohio, Washington and Wyoming — where the state fund sells workers' compensation without employers' liability. An employer there needs a separate stop-gap employers' liability endorsement or policy to have the cover at all. Check the state fund's wording before assuming Part Two is included.
Employers' liability is not general liability
General liability expressly does not cover employee injury. The Texas Department of Insurance, describing the standard commercial general liability form, states that CGL policies are not intended to provide coverage for workers' compensation or employer's liability. An employer who relies on a general liability policy for an employee-injury lawsuit has no cover for it.
It is also not employment practices liability (EPLI). EPLI covers claims about employment practices — hiring, firing and workplace conduct — not bodily injury to employees. The three covers answer three different claims, and none substitutes for another.
The Texas exception is worth noting for employers there: Texas is the only state where a private employer may decline workers' compensation. A Texas non-subscriber has no Part Two cover at all, and loses three common-law defences if sued (Texas Labor Code §406.033). The Texas contractor guide explains the non-subscriber rules.
No separate price — how it is priced
There is no separate employers' liability price. In NCCI states it is priced inside the workers' compensation premium, and the only separate charge is the increased-limits factor if the limits are raised above the standard 100/500/100. This guide therefore carries no cost figure: none exists as a standalone figure, and quoting the workers' compensation premium as the employers' liability price would misattribute a whole-policy price to one part of it.
What to do instead: price the workers' compensation policy as a whole, and ask the insurer what the increased-limits factor is if a contract requires $1,000,000 limits.