Case study 01 · Insurance
The $40,000 claim that cost $80,000
One pulled bicep. The only workers comp claim of his career. Three years at 130% of premium, on every payroll dollar in between.
Every figure on this page is Jay’s own, from a recorded interview on 15 September 2026. None of it has been checked against an insurance statement, and the page says so on each line.
The situation
One claim in twenty‑five years.
A few years ago one of his guys pulled a bicep. That is the whole incident. It is also the only workers comp claim he has ever filed.
The claim came to about forty thousand dollars. What it cost him was not forty thousand dollars.
“I think right now i’m at a — i’m paying 80 percent of of the percentage for workers comp. I had one claim in my whole career and i had a guy pull his bicep a few years ago, and that claim was um somewhere around forty thousand dollars i believe. It probably cost me eighty thousand dollars in extra workers comp because of the one claim. I had to pay 130 percent for three years before my experience [modifier] went back down to what it is now.”
Jay Voisey, 15 September 2026 · 17:52
Workers comp is not a flat rate. It is a rate on payroll multiplied by an experience modifier, and the modifier is set by your own claim history. One injury moved his and held it there for three years, across every job he bid in that window, including the ones with nobody hurt on them.
- Claims filed
- 1In his whole career
- The claim
- $40,000“somewhere around forty thousand dollars i believe”
- Extra premium
- $80,000His estimate of what the one claim cost him afterwards
- Penalty rate
- 130%Of premium, for three years
- Rate now
- 80%“80 percent of of the percentage”, September 2026
The arithmetic
Two dollars out for every one paid.
Both of the big numbers are his, spoken on the recording. The ratio between them is ours, and it is the only line below he did not say.
What the carrier paid
≈ $40,000
His figure, from the recording. Not checked against an insurance statement.
What it cost him after
≈ $80,000
His estimate of the extra workers comp premium the one claim caused.
The ratio
≈ 2 : 1
Our arithmetic on his two figures, not a number he stated. Roughly two dollars back out of his pocket for every dollar the carrier paid out of theirs.
Years at the penalty
3
At 130% of premium, until the experience modifier came back down.
Where he sits now
80%
Of the percentage, in his words, as of September 2026.
“So you got to be really careful. If you have claims it’ll it’ll sink your ship in a hurry.”
Jay Voisey, 15 September 2026 · 18:30
His rule
Self‑insure up to a point. Know the point.
He does not treat insurance as a bill that arrives. He treats it as a position you take, with a price attached, and he is blunt that the price is set by your own file rather than by the market.
“Insurance is a game. You know it’s a big game, and if you don’t learn how to play it you’re going to lose. So you’ve got to you got to learn how to play, and you’ve got to learn how to mitigate your risk and be able to self-insure up to a point.”
Jay Voisey, 15 September 2026 · 30:31
The last clause is the rule. Decide in advance what size of loss you absorb yourself and what size you hand across, and price the difference into the work. Deciding it afterwards is how a small number turns into a three-year one.
“If if you’ve got small claims you better pay them out of your pocket, because every time you have one of those claims that’s a mark against you, and then next year at renewal time your rates are going up.”
Jay Voisey, 15 September 2026 · 31:00
What it means for your bid
Four things to change on Monday.
Your labour rate is not fixed. It is multiplied.
Comp is a percentage of payroll times an experience modifier your own file sets. Bid the modifier you actually carry, not the base rate printed on the policy. 80% and 130% are the same crew at two very different prices.
One claim is a three-year price change.
The injury closes. The premium does not. He paid the penalty across three renewals, on work that had nothing to do with the arm that got hurt.
Set your retention before you need it.
What you absorb and what you transfer is a decision with a number on it. Make the number in advance, write it down, and put the cost of absorbing it into your overhead line where you can see it.
Go and find out what your modifier is today.
It is one figure, your carrier has it, and it belongs in the labour line of every bid you write this year. Most owner-operators have never asked.
“Whatever they pay out it better be worth your while, because you’re gonna pay more. You’re not getting out of it. There’s a reason why they have big fancy buildings.”
Jay Voisey, 15 September 2026 · 31:36
Next · 02
Two percent of gross, before you dig
General liability priced off your sales, billed over ten months, then audited against your tax return.
Then · 03
Why he will not run corrugated pipe
Slick pipe only, schedule 35 minimum, and a slope you can run a riding mower across sideways.
Source: recorded interview with Jay Voisey, 15 September 2026, timestamps as shown. His figures, unverified against records. Last reviewed 21 September 2026.
Insurance is Module 06.
Overhead recovery, and what has to ride on every bid before you have made a dollar. Founding cohort is $397, and reserving takes no card.