What is NCCI Code 8871?

Code 8871, Clerical Telecommuter Employees, is a workers' comp classification NCCI created through Item B-1451, effective for new and renewal policies on or after July 1, 2026. It covers employees whose duties are exclusively clerical and who work more than 50% of the time from a home office separate from any employer location. It borrows Code 8810's loss costs until it develops its own experience (NCCI, 2026).

Is all remote office payroll automatically clerical?

No. Both Code 8810 and Code 8871 require duties to be exclusively clerical and physically separated from the operative hazards of the business. If a remote worker also dispatches crews, handles materials, or visits jobsites, the duties aren't purely clerical, and the payroll can be reclassified to the governing construction rate, which is often many times higher than the clerical rate (NCCI Basic Manual, 2026).

Can one employee's payroll be split between clerical and a trade code?

Generally no. NCCI rules bar dividing a single employee's payroll within a policy period between a Standard Exception classification and another class (NCCI, 2026). If the duties are mixed, the whole paycheck typically follows the governing classification. That's why a small amount of field work by an otherwise clerical employee can move the entire payroll to a much higher-rated construction code.

How much can a clerical misclassification cost a contractor?

It scales with the rate gap and the payroll. On an illustrative $250,000 of admin payroll, a 0.25 clerical rate produces $625 of premium, while a 5.00 contracting rate produces $12,500, before the mod and loss cost multiplier. At a 1.20 mod, that gap widens to roughly $14,250. The error repeats every renewal until the classification is corrected.

Field ReportJuly 16, 2026 · 4 min read

Remote Office Payroll Isn't Automatically Clerical Under 8871

NCCI's new telecommuter class code lands July 1, 2026. For contractors it re-applies the strict clerical test to the home office, where one misread can move a $250,000 payroll off a 0.25 rate.

By TraciThe Orson Group

Field Report

8871

New clerical telecommuter class code, effective July 1, 2026

NCCI Item B-1451

At a glance

Remote office payroll is not automatically clerical. NCCI Item B-1451 creates Code 8871 for clerical telecommuters effective July 1, 2026, but it applies the same exclusive-duties test as Code 8810 (NCCI, 2026). If a remote worker also dispatches crews or visits jobsites, that payroll can be reclassified to the governing construction rate, many times higher.

A new workers' comp class code for remote employees sounds like relief for contractors who sent the back office home during the past few years. It isn't, necessarily.

NCCI (the National Council on Compensation Insurance) is rolling out Code 8871, Clerical Telecommuter Employees, for new and renewal policies effective July 1, 2026 (NCCI Item B-1451, 2026). The code recognizes that a lot of admin work now happens in a spare bedroom. What it does not do is loosen the definition of what counts as clerical. It carries the old test into the home office.

The new code doesn't relax the old test

Code 8871 mirrors Code 8810, Clerical Office Employees. NCCI defines the telecommuter class as employees "performing clerical duties in a residence office at a telecommuter workstation that is separate and distinct from any location of the employer" (NCCI Basic Manual, 2026). The quiet part is in the rating: 8871 borrows 8810's loss costs and rating values until it builds its own experience (NCCI Item B-1451, 2026). Same low number, home or office.

The assignment rule is a threshold, not a menu. When more than 50% of the time is remote, the entire payroll goes to 8871. When 50% or more is on site, it all goes to 8810 (NCCI, 2026). One or the other. That matters because of a second rule most contractors never read: it is not permissible to divide a single employee's payroll within a policy period between a Standard Exception class and any other class. A little field time doesn't get split off. It can pull the whole paycheck.

For a contractor, clerical is a narrow door

Here's the catch that predates B-1451 and survives it. Clerical treatment, at the office or at home, requires the employee's duties be exclusively clerical, physically separated from the operative hazards of the business. That's the eligibility test underwriters and auditors apply.

Send the office manager to a jobsite to drop off materials. Have the estimator walk a roof twice a month. Ask the coordinator to dispatch crews from the truck. In each case the duties are no longer exclusively clerical, and the address, home or office, doesn't save the classification. Remote is about where the work happens. The class code is about what the work is.

In our reviews of Southeast contractor worksheets, the payroll carried at clerical rates is one of the first places a misclassification hides, precisely because everyone assumes desk work is safe.

The dollar gap is the whole story

Run the numbers on one admin group. Say a contractor carries $250,000 of remote back-office payroll. At an illustrative clerical rate of 0.25 per $100 of payroll, that's $625 before the mod and the loss cost multiplier. Reclassify the same payroll to an illustrative 5.00 contracting rate, and it becomes $12,500 on the same dollars.

That's an $11,875 swing on one group of employees, before anything else is applied. Now layer the mod. At a 1.20 EMR (Experience Modification Rate, also called the mod), the clerical figure grows to $750 and the contracting figure to $15,000. The mod doesn't create the gap. It widens it, by the same 20%, on every renewal until the classification is corrected.

The rate difference in that example is roughly 20 to 1. Real construction codes vary, but the direction never does: the governing trade class always dwarfs the clerical class. That's why a single reclassified employee changes the premium conversation.

Remote doesn't mean reclassify-proof

Some contractors are reading B-1451 as a reason to move more payroll to a telecommuter code before renewal. The instinct is understandable and the exposure is real. Neither 8810 nor 8871 applies at all if the underlying duties aren't clerical to begin with, and moving the work home doesn't change the duties. The new code is a location refinement, not a reclassification shortcut.

What an audit would check

An audit checks whether the payroll a contractor carries at clerical or telecommuter rates actually meets the exclusive-duties standard, not just the remote-time threshold. It checks whether the 8871 assignments arriving with July 2026 renewals match how the work is really performed. It checks whether a single employee's mixed duties have quietly moved an entire paycheck out of the class the worksheet still shows. Most contractors we review have at least one desk role that doesn't survive that look.

The class code you were handed and the class code your work actually supports can be two different numbers, and the gap rides your mod every renewal. Send us your NCCI worksheet and we'll review it for free.