Group coverage by trade

Group Health Insurance for General Contractors

A general contractor's benefits problem is almost never about the field. It is about a small salaried office - PMs, estimators, superintendents, admin - carrying the whole plan while the labour that shows up on your job sites belongs to somebody else's payroll. Getting that boundary right is most of the work.

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What actually decides this for general contractors

Your subs are not your employees, and that is the whole eligibility question

Only W-2 employees can be on your group plan and only they count toward participation. For a GC whose field labour is entirely subcontracted, the group is the office. That is often ten or fifteen people, which is a perfectly normal small group and much easier to qualify than owners expect.

Estimators and PMs are the most poachable people in construction

A good estimator is the difference between a profitable year and a bad one, and every competitor in your market knows who yours is. This is a small, high-value population where a strong plan is cheap relative to the cost of losing one person mid-bid season.

Bonding and prequalification reward looking like a real company

Surety underwriting looks at organisational stability, and owner prequalification packets increasingly ask about employee benefits. Neither will approve or deny you on a health plan alone, but both read a company with benefits as a company with continuity.

Superintendents live in the field but belong to the office census

Supers are your employees even though they never sit in the office. They are often the oldest people on your census, which pulls the age factor up, and they are the ones most likely to actually use the plan. Network adequacy has to work where they live, not where the office is.

What it costs

For a typical GC office of eight to twenty, expect roughly $490 to $740 per employee per month for employee-only coverage before your contribution. Salaried construction management staff usually skew 30 to 50. Most GCs contribute 70% to 100% of the employee-only premium, which is higher than trade contractors because the covered headcount is small.

Getting approved: the participation question

A GC's participation math is usually comfortable, because a small salaried office has fewer people who waive for cash and more who genuinely want the coverage. Where GCs get caught is counting subcontractor personnel in the employee count - they do not count, in either direction.

Not sure where you land? The group eligibility checker works out your real participation number in about a minute, and the cost calculator shows your monthly share and the payroll tax you get back.

Which structure fits

Four routes are open to a business of this size, and the right one depends on your headcount, your W-2 versus contractor mix, and how much you want to spend per head.

Fully insured small group — community rated, predictable, and the usual starting point from two enrolled employees up.
Level funded — often 10–20% below fully insured for a healthy group, with unused claims dollars refundable. Generally worth quoting from about ten enrolled employees.
ICHRA — reimburse individual coverage tax-free. No participation requirement, no contribution cap, and it reaches a workforce a group plan cannot.
QSEHRA — for employers under 50, a fixed tax-free monthly allowance, capped at $6,450 single and $13,100 family for 2026.

General Contractors — common questions

Do subcontractors count toward my group health insurance?

No. Subcontractors are 1099 and are neither eligible for your group plan nor counted in participation or in the 50-employee applicable large employer calculation. Only W-2 employees count. Misclassifying workers to change that math creates far bigger problems than a health plan solves.

I only have twelve people in the office. Is that enough for a group plan?

Comfortably. Small group coverage generally starts at one enrolled W-2 employee besides the owner. Twelve is a straightforward group case and gives you access to fully insured, level-funded and ICHRA structures alike.

Can I offer different benefits to office staff and superintendents?

Yes, if the distinction is a bona fide employment classification - salaried versus hourly, or job class - and not individual selection. Many GCs run a single plan with a class-based contribution rather than two plans.

Does offering health insurance help with bonding?

Not directly as an underwriting factor, but surety and owner prequalification both assess organisational stability and workforce continuity. Benefits are part of how an established contractor presents, particularly when you are trying to move up in project size.

What if I want to help my subs get covered?

You cannot put them on your group plan, but you can point them to individual coverage, and if a sub is really a misclassified employee the correct fix is payroll, not insurance. Some GCs also use an ICHRA for a mixed workforce where a group plan does not reach everyone.

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