Georgia Workers' Compensation
Who Must Be Covered, the Statutory-Employer Rule, Benefits, Reporting Deadlines and Penalties (O.C.G.A. 34-9)
O.C.G.A. Title 34, Chapter 9 as published in the 2025 Georgia Code on Justia (read 2026-09-20); benefit maximums per 34-9-261/262/265 as amended effective July 1, 2023 (SBWC FAQ Rev. 7/23) · Reviewed 2026-09-21
The PSI outline's first "Comply with Laws" task is workers' compensation. Georgia's act is administered by the State Board of Workers' Compensation (SBWC), not the Department of Labor. Exam items are number-driven: three employees, 30 days, one year, ten days, seven days, 21 days, two-thirds, $800, 400 weeks, six physicians, five officers. Learn the numbers with the section that carries them.
1. Who must carry coverage — 34-9-2, 34-9-2.1, 34-9-2.2
- The act applies to every employer that has regularly in service three or more employees in the same business within Georgia. The SBWC counts regular part-time workers. Fewer than three → exempt unless employer and employees voluntarily elect to be bound. Farm laborers, domestic servants and work outside the usual course of the employer's business are also outside the act (34-9-2(a)).
- Employee (34-9-1) means every person in the service of another under any contract of hire or apprenticeship, written or implied — minors included, even those working in violation of child-labor law. Coverage starts on the first day of work.
- Independent contractor test (34-9-2(e)) — a worker is an independent contractor only if all three are true: (1) a contract, written or implied, intended to create an independent-contractor relationship; (2) the worker has the right to control the time, manner and method of the work; and (3) the worker is paid a set price per job or per unit, not a salary or hourly wage. Miss any one and the worker is an employee unless an administrative law judge decides otherwise.
- Corporate officers and LLC members (34-9-2.1) may exempt themselves by written certification to the insurer (to the Board if there is no insurer) — no more than five officers or members per company, each named (with office held); the exemption takes effect only when filed and can be revoked the same way. Exempting officers does not take an employer out of the act if it was already subject to it (Board form WC-10).
- Sole proprietors and partners (34-9-2.2) are not employe
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