Your Employer Didn’t Have Workers’ Comp? In Louisiana, the General Contractor May Have to Pay

By Randy Estes, October 3, 2026

You were hurt on a job site – a fall from a ladder, a cut from a saw, a back injury hauling materials. You report it, and then your boss tells you the bad news: “I don’t carry workers’ comp.” A lot of injured workers assume that’s the end of the road. In Louisiana, it often isn’t. If your employer was working as a subcontractor under a general contractor, that general contractor may be legally treated as your “statutory employer” – and may owe you the same workers’ comp benefits your own boss should have provided.

Your employer was supposed to have coverage

Louisiana law requires employers to secure workers’ compensation for their employees, usually by buying an insurance policy or qualifying to self-insure (La. R.S. 23:1168). Many small businesses skip it anyway to save on premiums. Some let a policy lapse mid-job. Others pay their crews in cash or hand out 1099s and call everyone an “independent contractor,” hoping the question never comes up.

An uninsured employer is still on the hook for your benefits. But collecting from a small, uninsured outfit can be slow or impossible. That’s why the statutory employer rule matters so much: it can put a larger, insured company on the line for your claim.

What is a “statutory employer”?

Under La. R.S. 23:1061, when a company (the law calls it the “principal”) hires a contractor to do part of its work, the principal can be liable to pay workers’ comp to that contractor’s employees – just as if it had hired them directly. There are two main ways a general contractor becomes your statutory employer:

The “two-contract” situation. A property owner hires a general contractor to build or renovate something. The general contractor then subcontracts part of that work – the painting, the roofing, the drywall – to your employer. Because your employer’s work is part of what the general contractor promised the owner, the law says a statutory employer relationship shall exist. This is the most common setup on Louisiana construction jobs, and it doesn’t require any special contract language.
A written contract that says so. Outside the two-contract setup, a statutory employer relationship exists when the written contract between the principal and your employer recognizes the principal as the statutory employer. Many general contractors put this clause in their standard subcontracts. It creates a rebuttable presumption that the principal is your statutory employer, and the principal can overcome that presumption only by showing that the work was not an integral part of, or essential to, its ability to generate its own goods, products, or services.

Either way, the general contractor steps into your employer’s shoes for comp purposes. Your weekly benefits are still figured from what your own employer paid you, but the check can come from the general contractor or its insurer.

Who often works without coverage?

We see uninsured employers most often among small subcontractors working under a bigger company. Common examples:

Painting subcontractors – small crews painting new homes, apartment complexes, or commercial buildings for a builder.
Roofing crews – among the most dangerous trades, and among the most likely to work without a policy.
Drywall, sheetrock, and finishing crews.
Framing and carpentry subs on residential and commercial builds.
Flooring, tile, and trim installers.
Concrete, masonry, and brick crews.
Demolition and debris-removal outfits.
Landscaping and tree-trimming companies working under a commercial property or construction contract.
Insulation, siding, and gutter installers.
Industrial labor and plant-turnaround crews supplied to refineries and plants along the river.
Storm-recovery crews – after a hurricane, small outfits pop up overnight to do tarping, cleanup, and repairs for larger contractors.

If your immediate employer was doing work for a general contractor or a larger company at the time you got hurt, you may have a claim against that larger company.

An example

A homeowner in Baton Rouge hires a builder to construct a new house. The builder subcontracts the interior painting to a two-man painting company. That painting company has no workers’ comp policy. Its employee, paid $20 an hour for full-time work, falls from scaffolding and breaks his wrist.

Because the painting was part of the job the builder promised the homeowner, the builder is the painter’s statutory employer. The builder (through its comp insurer) can owe the painter medical treatment and weekly wage benefits. Those benefits are figured from the painter’s own wages: a $20-an-hour, 40-hour week gives an average weekly wage of $800, and temporary total disability pays two-thirds of that – about $533 a week – subject to the state’s maximum and minimum rates.

“That’s not my problem” – what the general contractor may say

General contractors and their insurers sometimes push back, claiming they never hired you and owe you nothing. But the law already accounts for that. A general contractor that pays comp to a subcontractor’s employee can turn around and seek reimbursement from the subcontractor (La. R.S. 23:1061(B); La. R.S. 23:1063). That fight is between the two companies. It shouldn’t delay or reduce what you’re owed.

There is a trade-off worth knowing. Because the general contractor is treated as your employer, it generally gets the same protection from injury lawsuits that an employer gets – your remedy against it is workers’ comp, not a personal injury suit. You may still have a separate injury claim against someone else whose carelessness caused the accident, such as another subcontractor on the site or the maker of defective equipment.

What you should do

Report the injury in writing (it can be a text message) to your boss right away, even if they say they have no insurance.
Write down who was in charge of the job site. Note the general contractor’s name from signs, trucks, hard hats, permits, or sign-in sheets.
Save anything that ties your employer to the bigger company – texts, work orders, job addresses, pay stubs, or photos of the site.
Get medical treatment and tell the doctor it’s a work injury.
Watch the deadline. A Louisiana workers’ comp claim generally must be filed within one year of the accident (La. R.S. 23:1209). Figuring out who the statutory employer is takes time, so don’t wait.

Talk to us

If you were hurt working for a subcontractor that didn’t carry workers’ comp, call Estes Davis Law at (225) 336-3394 for a free, confidential consultation. Se habla español. We’ll help identify every company that may owe you benefits.

Disclaimer: This article is general information about Louisiana law and is not legal advice. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome; every case depends on its own facts. For advice about your situation, please consult an attorney.

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