Michigan Farm Workers' Comp for Agricultural Employers
Michigan has one of the narrowest agricultural workers' comp mandates in the country — and one of the easiest to get wrong. Here is exactly when MCL 418.115 requires coverage on a Michigan farm, why the piece-rate exemption does nothing for H-2A employers, and how to keep seasonal payroll from wrecking your premium audit.
Michigan's Agricultural Workers' Comp Rule, in Plain English
Paid hourly or salaried (not piece-rate), working 35+ hours a week for 13+ consecutive weeks during the preceding 52 — MCL 418.115(d).
Working 35+ hours a week for 5+ consecutive weeks: the farm owes medical-and-hospital-only coverage — MCL 418.115(e).
Michigan publishes its own class codes and pure premiums through the Compensation Advisory Organization of Michigan.
Most Michigan employers fall under the Workers' Disability Compensation Act quickly. Farms are the big exception. Under MCL 418.115(d), an agricultural employer must carry full workers' compensation only when it employs 3 or more regular employees paid hourly wages or salaries — and not paid on a piecework basis — for 35 or more hours per week, for 13 or more consecutive weeks during the preceding 52 weeks. Read that carefully: the trigger counts hourly and salaried workers only. A large piece-rate harvest crew, on its own, does not put a Michigan farm under the state mandate.
Underneath the full mandate sits a second, narrower duty that many growers have never heard of. Under MCL 418.115(e), an agricultural employer with 1 or more employees working 35+ hours per week for 5 or more consecutive weeks must provide medical-and-hospital-only coverage for those employees. So a fruit farm with two full-time hourly hands may owe no wage-loss coverage under state law — but it still owes medical coverage for them once they cross the five-week mark.
Exempt is not the same as protected. A farm that stays outside the act also stays outside its exclusive-remedy shield, which means an injured worker can bring an ordinary negligence lawsuit against the operation — medical bills, lost wages, and pain-and-suffering exposure with no statutory cap. That is why many exempt Michigan growers carry voluntary coverage anyway, and why the cheapest year of your farming life can be the one where you bought the policy you were not required to buy. Statewide rules for every industry are on our Michigan workers' comp page.
H-2A Workers' Comp in Michigan: The Federal Rule That Overrides the Exemption
If you bring in H-2A workers, Michigan's agricultural exemptions stop mattering. Federal program rules impose their own coverage requirement on every H-2A employer, in every state, with no employee-count threshold.
Under 20 CFR 655.122(e), an H-2A employer "must provide workers' compensation insurance coverage in compliance with State law covering injury and disease arising out of and in the course of the worker's employment."
And if the work "is not covered by or is exempt from the State's workers' compensation law" — exactly the situation Michigan's piece-rate carve-out creates — the employer "must provide, at no cost to the worker," insurance delivering benefits "at least equal to those provided under the State workers' compensation law for other comparable employment."
The rule has teeth at the paperwork stage, not just after an injury. Under 655.122(e)(2), before the Department of Labor issues your temporary agricultural labor certification, you must provide the Certifying Officer with proof of coverage: the name of the insurance carrier, the insurance policy number, and proof of insurance for the entire period of employment — or, where state coverage applies, proof of that state coverage. No compliant policy, no certification, no crew.
In practice, the clean solution for a Michigan H-2A operation is a standard workers' compensation policy that covers the whole crew — piece-rate pickers included — rather than trying to lean on the state exemption and patch the gap with substitute coverage. A single policy satisfies 655.122(e), produces the exact proof the Certifying Officer asks for, and restores the exclusive-remedy protection the exemption takes away. Our H-2A workers' comp guide covers the federal requirements crop by crop and state by state.
Michigan's H-2A Footprint: Apples, Blueberries, and Asparagus
Per USDA Economic Research Service data on FY2023 H-2A certifications.
Michigan held the #6 spot in both FY2023 and FY2024 H-2A certifications.
About 4.0% of national certifications in FY2023; a similar share of the 384,900 certified nationally in FY2024.
Michigan is a top-ten H-2A state because its signature crops are exactly the kind the program exists for: hand-harvested fruit and vegetables on tight seasonal windows. Apples, blueberries, and asparagus are the marquee Michigan H-2A crops, and USDA ERS research flags Michigan among the states where H-2A labor concentrates in fruit, vegetable, and melon production. Those are also the crops where piece-rate pay is standard — which is precisely why the MCL 418.115(d) piecework carve-out and the federal 655.122(e) mandate collide on Michigan farms more than almost anywhere else.
The program's growth cooled slightly in FY2024 — Michigan was among the 16 states that certified fewer positions than the year before — but it still ranked #6 nationally. For insurance purposes the direction of the trend matters less than the structure: thousands of Michigan farm jobs each season are filled by workers whose coverage is a federal condition of the visa itself, verified before certification is issued. Getting the policy placed early, with dates that span the full contract period, is part of the H-2A filing calendar, not an afterthought.
Seasonal Payroll, Piece Rates, and Your Premium Audit
Farm workers' comp premiums in Michigan are estimated at the start of the policy year and trued up at audit. Seasonal operations lose money at audit in predictable ways — all of them fixable before the auditor calls.
Injury exposures on Michigan farms
- ✓ladder falls in apple orchards during picking season
- ✓tractor rollovers and PTO entanglements
- ✓repetitive-motion and lifting injuries in packing sheds
- ✓heat illness during summer harvest peaks
- ✓ATV/UTV accidents moving crews between blocks
Audit traps for seasonal ag payroll
- ✓piece-rate harvest records mingled with hourly payroll
- ✓harvest-peak payroll underestimated at policy inception
- ✓farm labor contractor crews absorbed into your premium when the FLC's coverage is not documented
- ✓trucking-to-market payroll lumped into the farm classification
- ✓multi-state H-2A itineraries with payroll assigned to the wrong state
Two Michigan-specific habits pay for themselves. First, keep piece-rate and hourly payroll cleanly separated in your records all season — that separation is what the MCL 418.115(d) trigger, your classifications, and your audit all turn on. Second, remember that Michigan rates off CAOM's class codes and pure premiums rather than the NCCI system most other states use, so a classification that was correct on your Indiana or Ohio operation is not automatically correct here. We review classifications, project seasonal payroll honestly, and sit on your side of the table at audit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Michigan require workers' comp for farm and agricultural employers?
Only after specific thresholds. Under MCL 418.115(d), a Michigan agricultural employer needs full workers' comp coverage once it has 3 or more regular employees who are paid hourly wages or salaries — not on a piecework basis — and who work 35 or more hours per week for 13 or more consecutive weeks during the preceding 52 weeks. A narrower duty sits underneath it: under MCL 418.115(e), an agricultural employer with 1 or more employees working 35+ hours per week for 5 or more consecutive weeks owes medical-and-hospital-only coverage for those employees. Farms below both thresholds are exempt under state law — but H-2A employers still face a separate federal coverage mandate.
Do piece-rate harvest workers count toward Michigan's three-employee coverage trigger?
No. The full-coverage trigger in MCL 418.115(d) counts only regular employees paid hourly wages or salaries and not paid on a piecework basis, so a piece-rate picking crew does not by itself put a Michigan farm under the state mandate. That exemption cuts both ways: a farm outside the act is also outside its exclusive-remedy protection, so an injured worker's lawsuit lands on the farm directly. Many exempt Michigan growers buy voluntary coverage for exactly that reason — and every H-2A employer must provide coverage regardless.
Is workers' comp required for H-2A workers in Michigan?
Yes. Federal H-2A rules override Michigan's agricultural exemptions. Under 20 CFR 655.122(e), an H-2A employer must provide workers' compensation insurance in compliance with state law — and where the employment is exempt from the state's workers' comp law, the employer must instead provide, at no cost to the worker, insurance with benefits at least equal to what the state act would pay for comparable employment. Under 655.122(e)(2), the employer must give the Department of Labor proof of coverage — the carrier's name, the policy number, and proof of insurance for the entire period of employment — before the temporary agricultural labor certification is issued.
How are workers' comp premiums set for Michigan's seasonal farm payroll?
Michigan is an independent rating-bureau state: the Compensation Advisory Organization of Michigan (CAOM) publishes the class codes and pure premiums carriers rate from, so farm classifications will not always match the NCCI codes used in other states. Your premium starts as an estimate against projected payroll and is trued up at audit — which is where seasonal operations get hurt. Keeping piece-rate harvest records separate from hourly equipment and packing payroll, projecting the harvest peak honestly, and documenting coverage for any farm labor contractor crews are the three habits that keep a Michigan farm audit from producing a surprise bill.
Coverage thresholds, the CAOM rating bureau, and state-wide FAQs for every Michigan industry.
Farm exposures, ag class codes, and audit strategy for agricultural employers nationwide.
The federal 20 CFR 655.122(e) requirement, certification proof, and multi-state H-2A itineraries.
Our full agricultural program: workers' comp, general liability, and instant online quoting.
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