Home / Requirements Checker
What Does Your Plumbing License Actually Require?
Four taps. No contact info. The checker maps your entity type, crew, and jobsites to the CSLB rules and hands you a personal requirement list for all four coverages.
CSLB Requirements Checker
The Same Logic, Written Out
Everything the checker applies, in plain English — so you can verify it yourself.
| $25,000 Contractor License Bond | Required by the CSLB for every active licensee, regardless of entity type or crew size. Details → |
|---|---|
| $100,000 Employee/Worker Bond | Required by the CSLB only when the licensed entity is an LLC. LLCs must also carry general liability by statute — $1,000,000 aggregate for five or fewer persons, plus $100,000 for each person beyond the fifth, capped at $5,000,000. Details → |
| General Liability | Not a CSLB requirement for non-LLC licensees — but most GCs and commercial jobsites require certificates by contract before you can work. Details → |
| Workers’ Compensation | Required once you have employees. Running solo you may claim the CSLB exemption — but only by filing it, and it ends at your first hire or on January 1, 2028, whichever comes first. Holding C-8, C-20, C-22, C-39, or D-49 removes it entirely. Details → |
On dates: If an agent’s email or an insurance blog has quoted you an earlier deadline, it came from the prior bill in this sequence and was superseded by SB 1455, which set the operative date at January 1, 2028. Plumbers are not required to carry comp with zero employees today; roofers are, and have been for over a decade.
Asked on Every Jobsite
Only by filing for it. A C-36 licensee with no employees may claim the CSLB workers compensation exemption, but it is not automatic — you must file the exemption certification with CSLB. It ends the moment you hire anyone, and it is repealed entirely on January 1, 2028.
No. The contractor license bond protects the people you work for — it is a CSLB licensing requirement, and $25,000 is the bond’s penalty amount, not what you pay for it. Without a current bond on file, your license is not active.
The section of law that allows the no-employee exemption is repealed. From that date the exemption survives only for joint ventures, so a solo plumber who relies on it today will need workers compensation coverage instead.