Tired of Workers Comp
Audit Bills?

A Professional Employer Organization (PEO) enters into a co-employment arrangement with your business. The PEO becomes the employer of record for your workers — handling payroll, tax filings, HR compliance, and benefits administration — while you retain full control over day-to-day operations and work assignments. For contractors, the most valuable benefit is access to the PEO's master workers' compensation policy, which eliminates individual policy audits and provides pay-as-you-go premium billing based on actual payroll each period.

Yes. When you access workers' compensation through a PEO, your employees are covered under the PEO's master policy. Because premium is calculated and collected each payroll cycle based on actual wages, there is no estimated exposure at the start of the year and no reconciliation audit at the end. The audit process that generates surprise bills for traditional policyholders simply does not exist in a PEO arrangement.

Pay-as-you-go workers' compensation is a billing method where your premium is calculated and collected each time you run payroll, based on actual wages paid. This eliminates the large upfront deposit required by traditional policies and eliminates the year-end audit. It is available both through PEOs and through some traditional carriers that offer payroll-integrated billing. The result is better cash flow, no surprise audit bills, and premium that automatically adjusts when your workforce grows or shrinks.

Yes — 'employee leasing' is the older term for what is now formally called a Professional Employer Organization (PEO). Florida regulates PEOs under Chapter 468 of the Florida Statutes, and the industry trade association NAPEO uses the PEO terminology. You may still see 'employee leasing' used in Florida, particularly in the construction and contracting industries, but it refers to the same co-employment arrangement.

Because PEOs pool employees from many client companies, they can offer benefit packages that small and mid-size contractors could not access independently. This typically includes group health insurance (medical, dental, vision), life insurance, 401(k) retirement plans, FSA/HSA accounts, and employee assistance programs (EAPs). Access to competitive benefits helps contractors attract and retain skilled workers in a tight labor market.

PEO pricing is typically structured as an administrative fee of 2–8% of gross payroll, or a flat per-employee-per-month (PEPM) fee. The workers' compensation premium is embedded in the payroll billing and calculated at the PEO's master policy rate, which is often lower than what a small contractor could obtain independently. For most contractors, the total cost of a PEO is comparable to — or lower than — the combined cost of a traditional workers' comp policy, payroll processing, and HR administration.

Yes, though not all PEOs accept high-risk trades. PEOs that specialize in construction and contracting — including roofing, framing, concrete, and demolition — are available in Florida. These PEOs have master workers' comp policies that include the high-risk class codes and can offer coverage to trades that struggle to find affordable traditional policies. Bright Coast Insurance works with PEOs that serve the full range of Florida contractor trades.

A staffing agency recruits and places workers with client companies on a temporary basis. A PEO co-employs your existing workforce — the workers you have already hired — for the purpose of HR administration, payroll, and benefits. You continue to direct and supervise the work. The key distinction is that a PEO does not recruit or supply workers; it manages the employer responsibilities for workers you already have.