Your class code decides your quote more than your headcount does
PEOs underwrite risk, not revenue. A 40-person roofing company and a 40-person law firm get quoted like different species. Here's how each sector we work in typically lands — and which lever moves the number.
Construction & trades
Roofing, framing, electrical, mechanical, and civil. Comp premium usually dwarfs the administrative fee, so the PEO with the lowest PEPM is rarely the cheapest deal. Certified payroll and prevailing-wage jobs narrow the field further.
Healthcare & clinics
Practices, dental groups, home health, and behavioral health. Benefits are the retention story — pooled plans through a PEO often let a 40-person practice offer coverage a hospital system would recognize.
Hospitality & food service
Restaurants, hotels, catering, and events. Turnover volume makes onboarding throughput matter as much as rate, and seasonal payroll swings favor percentage-of-payroll pricing when modeled properly.
Energy & oilfield services
Service companies, transport, and field crews. Multi-state crews, per-diem handling, and heavy comp exposure make this the sector where getting the structure wrong is most expensive.
Professional services
Firms, agencies, engineering, and financial services. Low comp risk means the negotiation is almost entirely about benefits quality and administrative fee — the cleanest comparisons we run.
Staffing & high-MOD employers
Where the market gets thin. Prior claims and mods above 1.2 get declines from most PEOs, but not all of them, and not always at the same price. This is where an independent broker earns the fee.
Declined, or quoted punitively?
High experience mods, prior claims, and hard-to-place class codes are where most brokers stop returning calls. It's the work we ask for. Some markets will still write you — the job is knowing which, and how to present your loss history.
Get quotes built for your class codes
Tell us the industry and the mod. We'll tell you which PEOs price it well and which will waste your time.
Free to your business. The PEO you choose pays the broker fee — and it's the same fee whichever one you pick.