A solo C-36 plumber does not need workers' compensation in 2026.

The date in the statute is January 1, 2028.

Pages still circulating the January 2026 date are using the first version of the bill. Senate Bill 1455, Chapter 485 of the Statutes of 2024, kept the current exemption rules in place until January 1, 2028. Business and Professions Code section 7125 says the current section remains in effect only until that date.

C-36 plumbing was never on the early list. Concrete, warm-air heating, asbestos abatement, roofing, and tree service already have to carry workers' compensation with zero employees. Plumbing was given the extra time.

Sources: CSLB industry bulletin on SB 1455, December 19, 2024, and Business and Professions Code section 7125. Checked October 13, 2026.

Who can still file the exemption.

CSLB's own instructions say the exemption form is refused in three situations. The licensee employs anyone in a manner subject to California workers' compensation law. The license is qualified by a responsible managing employee. The license includes C-8 Concrete, C-20 Warm-Air Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning, C-22 Asbestos Abatement, C-39 Roofing, or C-61/D-49 Tree Service.

A C-36 license is outside that classification list. A plumber who truly has no employees, and whose qualifier is a responsible managing officer rather than a responsible managing employee, can still send CSLB the signed exemption.

A license that CSLB has placed on inactive status does not need a certificate or an exemption while it stays inactive. Reactivating it brings the filing back.

Source: CSLB workers' compensation requirements. Checked October 13, 2026.

A helper ends the exemption.

The exemption certifies that the licensee does not employ any person in a manner that makes California workers' compensation law apply. A person brought in for a day counts. A 1099 form does not decide the question. An unlicensed person doing work that requires a contractor license can be treated as the hiring contractor's employee.

CSLB says the exemption on file stops being valid once the licensee employs anyone who must be covered. Proof of coverage has to reach CSLB headquarters within 90 days of the hire. A false exemption, or employing someone after the exemption without first putting a certificate on file, is its own violation. The dollar amounts are in the Senate Bill 291 note.

The class on a plumbing policy, and the reason a pure premium is not a price, are on the workers' compensation page. This page does not add a rate.

What starts January 1, 2028.

On that date the current text of section 7125 is repealed. The text that takes effect still lets a licensee organized as a joint venture with no employees file the statement. An active licensee who is not that joint venture needs a Certificate of Workers' Compensation Insurance, or a Certification of Self-Insurance from the Department of Industrial Relations, on file with CSLB.

Roofing, concrete, HVAC, asbestos abatement, and tree service were not given this extra time. They already need the certificate.

A general contractor can still ask for a workers' compensation certificate before a plumber starts a subcontract. The CSLB exemption answers the license file. It does not answer the general contractor's contract.

The January 1, 2028 joint-venture statement is the rule Senate Bill 1455 moved from 2026, as Senate Bill 291 describes it in the chaptered digest. Checked October 13, 2026.

The other two notes.

What Senate Bill 291 changed on January 1, 2026. The July 1, 2026 fine change, and the home-improvement contract rules.