Class code comparisons

Most classification disputes come down to two or three codes that look interchangeable on a dec page and price very differently. Each comparison below gives the one test that decides it, the illustrative rate gap, what audits get wrong in both directions, and the records that settle the argument.

• 5606 vs 5645 vs 5403

  Class code 5606 vs 5645 vs 5403: supervisor or carpenter?

  If the person ever performs manual labor or supervises hands-on at the job site, they are in a trade code — not 5606. 5606 is for supervision exercised through subordinate foremen only.

• 8742 vs 7380

  Class code 8742 vs 7380: outside sales or driver?

  If the employee delivers merchandise as a regular part of the job, they belong in a driver code. Outside sales (8742) requires that they travel to customers but do not deliver.

• 5437 vs 5645 vs 2812

  Class code 5437 vs 5645 vs 2812: trim install, framing or cabinet shop?

  Where the work physically happens decides the code: shop fabrication is 2812, field installation of cabinets and trim is 5437, structural carpentry on detached homes is 5645.

• 8810 vs 8871

  Class code 8810 vs 8871: office clerical or remote clerical?

  Both codes require duties that are exclusively clerical. Given that, the only question left is location: more than half the time away from the employer's premises points to 8871, otherwise 8810.

• 9082 vs 9083

  Class code 9082 vs 9083: table service or counter service?

  How the food reaches the customer decides it: served at the table by wait staff is 9082, ordered and collected at a counter is 9083.

• 5645 vs 5403

  Class code 5645 vs 5403: residential or commercial carpentry?

  The structure the crew is actually working on, job by job, decides it: detached one- or two-family homes are 5645, everything else — commercial, multi-family over two units — is 5403.

• 8868 vs 9101

  Class code 8868 vs 9101: school staff or custodial/support staff?

  What the role actually does decides it: teaching, administrative and clerical work is 8868; custodial, cafeteria, maintenance and bus/transportation work is 9101 — regardless of what building either works in.

• 8832 vs 8835

  Class code 8832 vs 8835: office-based or home-visit healthcare staff?

  Whether the employee travels to a patient's home and performs physical patient care — lifting, transfers, bathing — decides it. Fixed-location clinical and clerical work is 8832; home-visit aide work is 8835.

• 9014 vs 0042

  Class code 9014 vs 0042: interior janitorial or exterior grounds work?

  Where the work physically happens decides it: cleaning inside a building is 9014, grounds and exterior work is 0042 — and a facility-services business doing both needs a payroll split, not a single code.

• 7219 vs 7228

  Class code 7219 vs 7228: long-haul or local trucking?

  Whether drivers routinely operate beyond the state's defined local-hauling radius and stay out overnight decides it — and that radius, and even whether both codes exist, is set state by state, not nationally.