California contractor license requirements
What you need before your first paid job in California, one page for each trade. The license, the least insurance you must carry, whether the state asks for a bond, when you charge sales tax, and the deadlines that protect your right to be paid.
Plumbing in California
- License you need
- C-36 Plumbing ContractorRenews every two years for an active license
- Insurance you must carry
- No state minimumcustomers usually ask for $1,000,000
- Workers' comp
- Requiredas soon as you have one employee
- California has one contractor license, not a journeyman, master, and business ladder. You need four years in the last ten at journey level, or as a foreman, supervising employee, contractor, or owner-builder. Then two exams, and the C-36 is issued to you or your company.
- The state does not set a liability insurance minimum for a sole owner or a corporation. Only an LLC must carry it, and then the floor is $1,000,000.
HVAC in California
- License you need
- C-20 Warm-Air Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning ContractorRenews every two years for an active license
- Insurance you must carry
- No state minimumcustomers usually ask for $1,000,000
- Workers' comp
- Requiredalways
- A C-20 contractor must have workers' comp insurance even with no employees. It is one of five classifications that cannot claim the no-employee exemption, alongside concrete, asbestos abatement, roofing, and tree service. A license qualified by a responsible managing employee is in the same position.
- There is one contractor license, not a journeyman and master ladder. Four years in the last ten at journey level, or as a foreman, supervising employee, contractor, or owner-builder. Then two exams, a $25,000 bond, and the C-20 is issued to you or your company.
Electrical in California
- License you need
- C-10 Electrical ContractorRenews every two years for an active license
- Insurance you must carry
- No state minimumcustomers usually ask for $1,000,000
- Workers' comp
- Requiredas soon as you have one employee
- California licenses the business and certifies the person. The C-10 goes to the company. Every employee who makes an electrical connection of 100 volt-amperes or more needs a card of their own from the state labor department.
- A C-10 with no employees can still file the no-employee workers' comp exemption. The five trades that cannot are concrete, asbestos abatement, heating and air, roofing, and tree service. That door closes for every trade on January 1, 2028.
Across states
Can you charge sales tax on labor? The rule in 25 states. Which states tax the work itself, which tax only the parts, and how a repair differs from a new install.