Workers' compensation premium scales approximately linearly with your experience modification rate: a contractor paying $85,000 at a 1.15 mod is paying roughly $74,000 of unmodified premium plus an $11,000 experience surcharge — and would pay about $63,000 at a 0.85 mod. This calculator takes your current premium and EMR, lets you set a target, and returns the annual difference and the value across the 3-year experience-rating window your mod is computed from.
Experience rating weights claim frequency over severity, which is why the highest-leverage program is preventing routine incidents — and why documented safety training is what brokers bring to underwriters. Above a 1.0 mod, many general contractors and owners also exclude you from bidding outright.
1.0 is by construction the industry average for your class codes and payroll size. Below 1.0 earns a premium credit; strong programs commonly run 0.75–0.90. Above 1.0 costs a surcharge and, in construction, frequently triggers GC bid-list exclusions at 1.0 or 1.2 caps.
Approximately your unmodified (manual) premium times the mod reduction, each year. Example: $100,000 in premium at a 1.20 mod implies about $83,000 manual premium; reaching 0.95 saves roughly $21,000 per year — and the mod applies for the full 3-year window the experience period covers.
Reduce claim frequency (the formula punishes many small claims more than one large one), report and manage claims aggressively, verify your payroll and class codes are correct, and run a documented safety program — verifiable training and briefing records are what loss-control underwriters credit.