Monopolistic State Fund

A state-operated workers compensation system in which employers must purchase coverage exclusively from the state fund rather than private insurers. The four monopolistic states are North Dakota (Workforce Safety & Insurance), Ohio (Bureau of Workers' Compensation), Washington (Department of Labor & Industries), and Wyoming (Workers' Compensation Division).

Tower contractors dispatching crews into these states must secure separate state fund coverage because their private workers compensation policy does not apply in monopolistic states — even if the policy includes an all-states endorsement. The state fund provides only statutory workers compensation benefits (Part A) but does not include employers liability coverage (Part B).

This creates a critical gap: without employers liability, the contractor has no coverage for employee lawsuits alleging negligence — including action-over claims common in tower work. The solution is adding stop gap coverage (also called stop gap endorsement) to the contractor's commercial general liability policy, which fills the employers liability gap in monopolistic states.

For tower contractors, the practical steps are: (1) register with the state fund in each monopolistic state where crews will work, (2) pay state fund premiums based on reported payroll in that state, (3) add stop gap coverage to the CGL policy for those states, and (4) update these arrangements before sending crews into any of the four states.