Can you split clerical payroll out of 8827?
Yes. The manual says so plainly, and carriers already bind it. But three conditions catch most agencies, and one of them is a genuine trap that can cost more than the split saves.
The short answer
California's Standard Classification System has a list — Appendix IV — of classifications whose phraseology already includes clerical office employees. If your classification is on that list, clerical payroll stays where it is and there is nothing to discuss.
8827 is not on that list. Its phraseology reads "all employees," not "including Clerical Office Employees," which is the language used by classifications that absorb clerical. Compare it to 9043, Hospitals, which does include the phrase — and where the split genuinely is unavailable.
So a home care, home health or hospice agency can report qualifying office payroll under 8810, Clerical Office Employees, or 8871, Clerical Telecommuter Employees, instead of 8827.
Why it is worth doing
Because the rate difference is not marginal. On the pure premium rates approved for September 1, 2026:
| Code | Classification | Rate | vs 8827 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8827 | Home care | 2.794 | — |
| 8810 | Clerical office | 0.214 | 13.1× lower |
| 8871 | Clerical telecommuter | 0.096 | 29.1× lower |
Your carrier's filed rates will be higher than these — advisory pure premium rates typically run well below what carriers actually charge — but the ratio between the classifications holds. Moving $100,000 of genuinely clerical payroll is worth several thousand dollars a year on most agencies' actual filed rates.
The three conditions
One — the work must actually be clerical
Clerical office employees means record keeping, correspondence, telephone work, data entry and similar duties, performed in a work area separated from the operative hazards of the business. Intake, billing, payroll, scheduling and recruiting all qualify on their face.
Two — the separation must be physical
The clerical work area has to be separated from the operative hazards by structural partitions. In a home care agency this is usually satisfied without effort, because the operative hazard is in somebody else's residence, not in your office. It matters more if you run a facility.
Three — and this is the trap
If an employee performs any duties outside the clerical classification during the policy period, their entire payroll for the period goes to the highest-rated classification applicable to their work. Not a pro-rata share. All of it.
Your scheduler covers one caregiver shift because somebody called in sick. That single shift moves their whole year of payroll from 8810 at 0.214 to 8827 at 2.794 — and it can wipe out the savings from everyone else you correctly reclassified.
This is the single most common way the clerical split goes wrong, and it is why the split has to be paired with a written policy about who is permitted to cover shifts. In most agencies the answer should be: not the office staff.
The counterintuitive part
Here is what almost nobody tells operators: splitting clerical payroll lowers your premium but raises your experience modification.
Expected losses are calculated from payroll. Move payroll out of a high-rated classification and your expected losses fall. Your actual losses have not changed. The modification is the ratio between them, so the ratio gets worse.
| All in 8827 | $400K to 8810 | |
|---|---|---|
| Expected losses | $43,690 | $38,922 |
| Primary threshold | $13,000 | $12,000 |
| Experience modification | 141 | 147 |
| Manual premium | $94,996 | $84,676 |
| Modified premium | $134,160 | $124,093 |
Six points worse on the modification, and roughly $10,000 a year better on premium. The split is still clearly right — but if your broker reports a mod increase without explaining why, it looks like something went wrong. It did not.
There is also a timing effect worth knowing. The premium saving lands immediately, at your next reporting period. The modification increase does not arrive until the reclassified payroll enters the three-year experience period, which takes two to three years. So the first years are better than the table suggests.
What to do
- List every employee whose duties are genuinely clerical, and be honest about the schedulers
- Check whether anyone on that list covered a shift in the current policy period — if so, they are lost for this year, but not next
- Write the policy about who may cover shifts, and enforce it before you make the change
- Separate 8871 telecommuters from 8810 office staff — the rate is less than half again
- Expect your modification to rise, and make sure whoever reads your renewal understands why
Our clerical split checker works this out person by person, flags who is disqualified and why, and prices it at your carrier's filed rates. Nothing leaves your browser. Open the checker.
Sources: California Workers' Compensation Uniform Statistical Reporting Plan—1995, Standard Classification System and Appendix IV; Experience Rating Plan—1995, Tables I and II; approved pure premium rates effective September 1, 2026. This article is general information about published rating rules, not advice about your specific policy. Classification assignments are made by your carrier and the WCIRB, and disputes follow the process described in the policyholder notice attached to your policy.
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We can work out how much of your payroll qualifies, what the split is worth against your carrier's filed rates, and what it does to your modification.